Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers are currently gearing up to take on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 58 from Las Vegas. Purdy engineered an epic comeback for the 49ers against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game, while Mahomes largely relied on the Chiefs' defense to get the job done against the Baltimore Ravens on the AFC side of the bracket.
One criticism that has been hurled in Purdy's direction, most notably from unsigned free agent quarterback Cam Newton, is that he is a “game manager,” with the insinuation being that the 49ers are in their current position despite Purdy, not because of him.
Now, Purdy himself is speaking out on how he feels about that backhanded compliment of a label.
“I feel like it can be a compliment at times, where it's like alright, you've got a guy that can come in and run the system well,” said Purdy, per 49ers on NBCS on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “I feel like that's a compliment. You're doing things right mentally and obviously you're good enough to be able to hit guys that are open and make plays. There's 32 teams in the NFL and there's not a lot of people that can come in and play the quarterback position well in the NFL. It's a hard job.”
Purdy will have a chance to put any doubt about his skillset to rest on Sunday against the Chiefs. The highly anticipated matchup is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM ET.