Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers lost a disappointing NFC Championship Game to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, watching their rivals advance to the Super Bowl and their starting QB get injured in the process.

Ahead of the team's first postseason contest of this year — when the Green Bay Packers visit Levi's Stadium in California on Saturday — the signal-caller admits he feels better about the upcoming playoff run.

“I feel like it's a little different,” Purdy explained on Thursday, per David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone. “Just last year, still trying to find my way, in a sense. I got thrown in towards the end of the year, and so every single week, I was still trying to play good, and learn who I was as a quarterback, and obviously get more familiar with playing within the system.”

Brock Purdy bounced back from surgery in incredible fashion

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy smiling with Pro Bowl logo at the back

Purdy spent all of the offseason recovering from surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament he suffered in the 49ers 31-7 loss to the Eagles last January.

But San Francisco's starting quarterback was nothing short of excellent in the regular-season, entering Week 1 at centre and setting a new franchise single-season record with 4,280 passing yards.

He very likely won't win the MVP award, but he put together a really impressive case. And the real work begins for the 49ers on Saturday.

“And so now, I guess this year, just being more familiar with the offense, who I am and all that, it's a little different,” Purdy continued.

“But it's good to sort of watch the games from last year and sort of remember just the feeling and the emotions of playing in a playoff game. It's good. It's huge for me as a quarterback to go back to those moments and sort of remember what it feels like. So those are things that I'm sort of banking on.”

After advancing to Super Bowl LIV and losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020, nothing short of a championship will do for the NFC's top seed. And it'll be Brock Purdy leading the charge in front of the home crowd on Saturday afternoon.

“Honestly, we're going to find out with the playoffs coming up, in this game,” the star QB finished. “Yeah, I thought I took some stuff away from it, but at the end of the day, we're going to find out on Saturday.”