Simms' 2026 QB Countdown: Brock Purdy
Chris Simms explains how Brock Purdy has "amazing" anticipation and does a great job of extending plays but is limited in certain areas.
Video Transcript
Number 18 was Daniel Jones.
Number 17, a guy that is high variance in everyone's rankings.
You have him basically right in the middle here, Chris.
Yeah.
Brock Purdy.
Yeah, Brock Purdy, a- again, i- it This is a awesome football player.
And, and, i- yes, it's number 17 and maybe lower than people think and, and whatever else.
I- of course, he is the o- he can be surgical, right?
He is that kind of guy.
And I don't wanna say he's system because I know people get triggered by that.
He's system plus, and there's something to say about system, too.
You know, he's one of those guys sometimes I always say, like, he can do more with more, but he's not gonna do more with less, right?
I don't think he's gonna be the guy that's gonna say, "Hey, carry the team.
Do all that," and everything there.
But right?
Like, you get a guy like Shanahan, his ability to read the field, feel things when they're about to come open before anybody else would feel them.
anticipation's amazing.
He's got that ability as well.
You know, he, he does have a variety of throws.
He's a very good athlete to extend plays and do stuff like that.
It's something that I know I underrate him with at times and I think the whole public does.
He can run, he can extend plays and do that.
But at the other side of the story is he is limited in things he can do throwing the football.
There are certain plays and throws that they don't call that this because Brock Purdy's arm is not that.
Right.
Right?
And, and so that's where you have to take that into account, too.
One of the reasons we're questioning, "Hey, they're signing Mike Evans," 'cause you go, "What?"
I mean, he doesn't throw the ball deep down the field outside the numbers, back shoulders, right?
50-yard go balls like Baker.
"Oh, oh wait, nobody's open.
Let me throw a 60-yard post down the middle to Mike Evans."
Yeah.
That's not Brock Purdy's game.
And so that's why you w- you know, that's where that's gonna be a curious match together, those two there.
But yeah, Brock Purdy of course running an offense, doing all that.
Incredible.
And he can make more plays than we all give him credit for.
But yeah, there are still some things that he is limited by with his throwing that doesn't quite put him up in the upper echelons of the NFL as far as the quarterback's concerned.
Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch recently went on the Tom Tolbert Show and they talked about their first impressions when they were evaluating Brock Purdy.
When he got here, the way he looked with his few reps was so impressive and we were, we were trying to get Jimmy ready.
I mean, sorry, we were trying to get Trey ready.
And Jimmy was competing with him to see who won.
And I always I've told this story before, but I remember Jed coming in after a lot of training camp practices and always, "So who's looking better, Jimmy or Trey?"
And it was a couple days I was frustrated.
And I was just like, "I'm just telling you, it's the third guy."
"It's that guy that..." And he's like, "What?
Who?"
I'm like, "I'm just telling you it's him."
And, I remember the first time Brock got in was after we were playing Kansas City.
It was Christian McCaffrey's first game.
Played like 15 plays.
We traded for him that Friday, and we were getting beat pretty bad, so we put Brock in in the last drive for some mop-up duty, and he just came in out of nowhere and, threw a pick.
It was a two-minute drill.
Didn't do that good.
And I remember I get in the locker room after the game and Jed's like, "Well, I saw the guy you thought's the best.
That didn't look that good."
And I'm like, "Uh, it didn't.
You're right.
We'll see.
Don't judge him to that."
And then a couple weeks later everyone got hurt and it's like, "Hey, we're finally gonna see your guys' guy.
Is he gonna be this good?"
I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I said I liked him for like that."
"Now I don't know what he's gonna do now."
And, and then he won seven games in a row- Oh and it's this, so it's Kyle's greatest quality, he's got like this truth serum at all times.
Even when the owner's there.
Like, "Dude, you don't need to tell him that."
Little backyard podcasting- That's great of Kyle and Lynch.
Yeah.
Th- th- that ain't Kyle's backyard, let me just tell you.
No, I, I would've guessed that.
Yeah.
You, y- you can't hide money, okay?
No, no.
Let me just say, if it was Kyle's backyard you'd go, "Holy shit- Well, a palace is that his backyard?"
Yeah.
It looked like a- It's awesome.
It's awesome the fields of Italy level backyard.
That was- I was wondering, I was trying to figure out what they were drinking.
I zoomed in on the YouTube and I couldn't tell.
Yeah, you were trying to see.
It was some kind of either craft beer or craft seltzer.
I couldn't tell.
I bet you it was craft seltzer probably.
Okay.
they probably should wait till after the show's over for the craft beer, but- There you go but yeah, it's hilarious.
And then, you know, that, that's why he is my buddy is because he is- Very blunt.
Yeah, very blunt.
Exactly right.
And it's just funny to, you know It's funny to always to hear the coach talk about the conversations you gotta have with the owner.
And being around Jed York a little bit a few times in my, you know, life through Kyle and all that, Jed will give it to you a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jed's one of these g- we- different owners that like he, he really will ride me and give me jabs where I wanna be like- Like, "Perpetual loser" stuff "You mother bro, huh?
Huh?
If you weren't my best friend's boss- Yeah, yeah I'd like to tell you something."
Yeah, right.
Right?
But he's very cool that way.
And yeah, he'll give it to Kyle with certain things and rib him a little bit.
And I laugh when I sit there and do it, or, witness it, but yeah, just funny to hear it come out of Kyle's mouth that way.
Because a lot of coaches you would think that story is BS, but with Kyle you 100% believe it because he's the pinnacle, like, "No, I like the day three quarterback we got."
Exactly.
'Cause we've seen it before with him.
Exactly, exactly.
On multiple occasions.
Yes, yes.
So it's very believable, and what a story it's been for Brock Purdy.
Yeah.
I mean, look at Th- you know, again, Brock Purdy's really good.
we saw Again, a thing to explain maybe why he's 17, we saw what Mac Jones did, too, on the same team.
Mac Jones played at a high level.
Mac Jones, I mean, the statistics, the play, everything was really good.
I mean, yeah, really good.
but where Brock Purdy does separate himself is his movement and his ability to extend plays.
And that's where, you know Yeah, it's things, he doesn't have the big arm, 'cause on the run he's not gonna make wow throws on the run and all of that.
But again, as far as being surgicalDicing you up and doing that, and then the occasional, okay, I'd extend the play?
Yes.
But does he have the type of arm and things that, that I think, oh, he can, he can carry the team to where maybe they'll be able to beat a Seattle- Right or a Houston or somebody like that?
No.
That's where there's a little bit of a limitation, and the limitation physically not only doesn't it, show up on the field, it just shows up, too, to me in, in, like, certain play callings when I watch it back to go, "The, the, they gotta be aggressive here.
They gotta attack a little bit more."
But I think that's because the quarterback holds them back a little bit in, in that department.
Speaking of the Niners quarterback room, Mac Jones agreed to a revised contract for this season.
He gets a $300,000 roster bonus added.
Okay.
So there's another 2.25 million available incentives- Yep and then he'll be a free agent to potentially go start somewhere.
Yeah, yeah.
But he'll, he'll be a sought-after asset.
You know, to what extent, we'll see.
I mean, does he get a chance to play again this year with Purdy getting hurt or something like that?
I don't know.
but yeah, the 49ers are gonna be an interesting team.
They weren't gonna trade Mac Jones and take away their insurance policy.
I mean, look what he did for them last year.
He did well.
If they didn't have Mac Jones- Yep they're not in the playoffs.
That's the key.
Yeah, so that's They're gonna keep him, for sure.
And we've seen Purdy get banged up a little bit.
He's a smaller quarterback.
He's not necessarily the biggest guy in the world either.
but yeah, the 49ers are an interesting team, and I'm, I'm, I'm still trying to kinda wrap my finger or head around how good they might be this year.
One last thing on them.
Yeah.
They lose Jauan Jennings.
They add Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, and s- they drafted Stribling, of course- Yeah, yeah which was big news on day two of the draft.
Is this the best wide receiver group that Purdy's had?
I guess it just depends so much on, Ricky staying healthy- Yeah and Pearsall.
you know, there's, there's, there's some great versatility.
It's a pr- it got a chance to be a good room, but no, I wanna see the Mike Evans thing first.
Yeah.
I, I, I gotta see this, you know?
And so I wanna see that.
Christian Kirk is a still good player, but we know he's on the down part of his career.
Stribling, a rookie.
Pearsall hasn't quite lived up to expectations.
I'm not gonna rank that in front of Deebo and Brandon Aiyuk from three years ago.
No, that's a great call.
Right?
You know?
That, I can't do that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, also I think- With Jauan Jennings as the third, that, that man, yeah.
I mean, yeah, that group was pretty, pretty special.
Pretty damn good.
Exactly.
