There’s also a key date for Brock Purdy this offseason as it relates to when the 49ers begin to take practice to another level
Will San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy show up to offseason workouts and the rest of the offseason program without a new contract?
We are 11 days away from the 49ers reporting to the first phase of their offseason program. CBS Sports’s Joel Corry believes there’s a date a month out that we should be focusing on when it comes to Purdy joining his teammates:
A more realistic ambitious timetable for signing Purdy might be by May 27 when San Francisco begins phase three of offseason workouts. The 10 days of organized team activities can start being held where 11-on-11 drills are permitted. The 49ers shouldn’t be surprised if Purdy is absent from offseason workouts as long as he doesn’t have a new deal.
Purdy isn’t technically missing anything since mandatory minicamp isn’t until June 10. Still, the last thing you want is for your starting quarterback to miss reps, even in the summer, and build a rapport with the young wideouts on the roster.
Corry, a former agent, believes the Niners will have to up the ante from any previous offers, especially one that was reported—and disputed—at $45 million per year.
Corry went into detail about Purdy being the best quarterback Shanahan has had, and compared his situation to another quarterback the 49ers paid, Jimmy Garoppolo. Here’s more from Corry:
Given this quarterback salary landscape, the 49ers are operating in bad faith if the offer on the table to Purdy isn’t at a minimum $50 million per year. At the very least, the 49ers should be willing to put Purdy at the same place in the quarterback salary hierarchy Colin Kaepernick was when he signed his six-year extension in June 2014. At $19 million per year, Kaepernick became the NFL’s sixth-highest-paid upon signing. Doing the same for Purdy would be somewhere between Tagovailoa’s $53.1 million per year and the logjam at $55 million per year.
The extensions for Tagovailoa, Lawrence, Love and Herbert averaged 20.79% to 23.35% of the salary cap when signed. Tagovailoa’s deal, adjusted for the 9.32% increase in the salary cap from 2023 when he received his extension, is just over $58 million per year.
Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills was the latest quarterback to reset the market. Corry believes the 49ers will look at Allen’s $55 million as Brock’s ceiling, since the contracts aren’t apples-to-apples because Allen’s was a renegotiation and Purdy’s is a contract extension.
Corry then went through the financials of what tagging Purdy for multiple years would look like, and how that could turn out to be a double-edged sword for the Niners. The only way Purdy ends up getting tagged is if he plays out his rookie contract:
The 2026 non-exclusive franchise tag for quarterbacks projects to 14.576% of the 2026 salary cap. It’s 14.413% in 2025. If the 2026 salary cap is set at $302.5 million, an 8.35% increase over 2025’s $279.2 million salary cap, the quarterback figure should be $44.092 million. A second franchise tag in 2027 at a NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement-mandated 20% increase over Purdy’s projected 2026 number would be $52,910,400. A third and final franchise tag with a 44% increase over the 2027 cost projects to $76,190,976. Purdy would be positioned to test the open market in 2028 after making just over $97 million on two franchise tags (approximately $48.5 million per year).
The hardest part for Purdy under this scenario would be playing out his rookie contract for his $5.346 million 2025 salary on a $5,365,253 cap number. The $5.346 million is well below Purdy’s market value but is still a substantial raise for him. The $2,637,012 Purdy has made during the first three years of his rookie contract (2022 through 2024) is a little less than half this amount.
The increased cap gives the 49ers options down the line. I’m more interested in seeing the structure of the extension, and how much flexibility the Niners give themselves to get out of a potential deal. That will tell us everything we need to know about how the organization feels about their quarterback.