Brock Purdy’s third season as a starter didn’t go the way he or the San Francisco 49ers hoped, but the league’s coaches and executives still see him as a solid, if unspectacular, NFL starter.
The Athletic’s Mike Sando released his 2026 QB Tiers, and Purdy landed tied for 11th overall — tied with Caleb Williams. Of the 50 panelists that included 21 NFL executives and 29 coaches, 34 placed him in Tier 2, 15 slotted him in Tier 3, and just a single voter went all the way to Tier 1.
The consensus lines up with the season Purdy actually had. Injuries to his toe and shoulder cost him eight games, and he finished with 2,167 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in nine starts — solid efficiency numbers, but a far cry from the 4,280-yard, 31-touchdown ceiling he flashed in 2023.
That gap between what Purdy has shown and what he’s shown consistently is exactly what shaped the panel’s skepticism. “Just because of what he has done, you have to give him a 2, but he’s like bottom-end Tier 2,” one defensive coach said. “It is the system and everything around it that is going to help him. In that system, Jimmy Garoppolo took them to the Super Bowl, but when he went anywhere else, you struggled to say he was a 3.”
One head coach pushed back hard on the idea that Purdy is a product of scheme.
“I think he is better than given credit for,” the coach said. “Kyle (Shanahan) is great, but I think Brock Purdy, he can see it so fast, and he makes quick decisions, and he’s more athletic than you think. Really good player.”
For now, the numbers back the skeptics more than the believer. But with George Kittle working back from an Achilles injury and Mike Evans added to the receiving corps along with sensational pass-catching running back Christian McCaffrey, Purdy will get every chance in 2026 to turn that one Tier 1 vote into a trend rather than an outlier.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Brock Purdy paid immense respect from NFL coaches, execs in media poll
Reporting by Oliver G., Niners Wire / Niners Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Oliver G., Niners Wire | USA TODAY Network
