In his rookie season, Brock Purdy became the first player with the Mr. Irrelevant tag to throw a regular-season touchdown and the first San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback to start and win a playoff game. He has worn that tag proudly throughout his career. But four seasons and a $265 million extension later, his seniors from San Francisco are done with the tag.

“When Christian McCaffrey is beating his head up against a brick wall, and we can’t get any room for him in the run game, can our quarterback drop back 40 times and dissect a defense like a top-tier quarterback like he’s paid to do?” former Niners safety Donte Whitner asked on The Grit Code podcast before taking a swing at Purdy’s tag. “Yeah, it was a cute story at first. Mr. Irrelevant, coming in not expected to win. Now you get paid. We expect you to do those things.”

The “cute story” hits rather heavy if you look at what Purdy has accomplished so far. He entered the 2022 season as the third-string quarterback behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. He wasn’t even expected to play, let alone win. When both Lance and Garoppolo went down with injuries, Purdy stepped in and went 5-0 as a starter, wrapping up a 10-game win streak.

Brock Purdy beat Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7 in his first NFL start and became the only rookie to pull that off… ever.

That rookie run ended in the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. He tore the UCL in his right elbow in the first quarter, left the game, and came back in the third quarter to manage the game somehow when the backup went down. While the Niners wondered how to protect their quarterbacks better, Purdy came back in 2023 and took them to Super Bowl 58, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime.

Purdy is no longer the third-string quarterback. His contract makes him the 7th highest-paid quarterback in the league, averaging $53 million annually. Out of four years with the Niners, he has taken his team to the playoffs thrice. But the questions about what Purdy could do without Kyle Shanahan’s architecture never went away.

“Brock, I need you to get on the field and be the best player every game. Until they get that, they won’t win the Super Bowl. He hasn’t done that,” Whitner continued. “Most of his success have been coming off play action, gimmick plays. Things that they practice all week long. I need you to be able to bring us back from three touchdowns down like Patrick Mahomes can.”

To call Mahomes a genius of comebacks wouldn’t be overselling it. Across nine NFL seasons, the Chiefs quarterback has orchestrated 24 fourth-quarter comebacks in the regular season and 7 in the postseason. And Brock Purdy personally remembers one of those.

In Super Bowl LVIII, trailing 10-6 in the third quarter, Mahomes kept fighting and converting key third downs, ultimately sending the game into overtime with a 19-19 tie. Purdy’s squad only managed a field goal, and Mahomes marched 75 yards downfield to win it 25-22 with just 3 seconds left on the clock.

Whitner is asking Purdy for that same kind of game-winning capability when the 49ers’ offense stalls. But Purdy has always lacked that kind of arm talent and off-script playmaking. Pudy’s playstyle involves pure progression football. In contrast to Mahomes, he plays within structure and trusts the scheme – traits of an effective system quarterback. In fact, it’s something the man himself explained a few months ago.

“I feel like some guys think, especially young players, they come in, and they’re like, ‘I’m in the NFL, and I want to showcase my skillset as a quarterback, like running around, making plays, sometimes making things up,” Purdy said on The Athletic Football Show. “And I think within our system and how Kyle coaches it, he does a great job with – ‘hey, we’re going to scheme everything up. We’re going to teach you our scheme. We’re going to scheme everything up. We’re going to show you why we’re calling things.’ You just got to trust in the footwork, the read, what takes you to certain things and progressions, and just keep honing in on those little skill sets and the details.”

The most successful display of this style came in Week 13 last season. Facing the Cleveland Browns, Purdy went 16-of-29 for 168 yards and just one passing touchdown. Against Myles Garrett and his QB-hungry defense, he avoided sacks, broke tackles, and threw to open receivers even when it meant taking smaller gains. He recorded seven throwaways in 44 mph wind and chose not to force risky throws. The result: a resounding 26-8 victory – Purdy’s 3rd straight win in what would become a 6-game streak. The system works.

Donte Whitner’s critique of Brock Purdy’s system-dependent success connects to the bigger question about San Fran’s window. The same critic who produced the Mahomes comparison also tackled whether the Niners’ offense is still dominant or running on fumes.

Is the 49ers offense losing steam?

Long before they compared Purdy to Mahomes, Donte Whitner asked his co-host, Rod Brooks: “Is this (49ers) still a dominant offense, or is this system trying to squeeze out one more run from a bunch of aging stars?”

“This is the last go-round with most of the current iteration of the Niners offensive skill position firepower guys with the expectation of Brock Purdy,” 49ers legend  Brooks said. “Clearly Christian McCaffrey, I belive still elite, but closer to the end of his career than the beginning. Same thing with George Kittle… Mike Evans… Trent Williams… They’re still elite, and I think [they] will be considered elite until evidence proves otherwise because of who is in charge of the offense.”

McCaffrey has the Comeback Player of the Year tag from last season to prove he’s still an elite running back. But he has taken a lot of hits in recent seasons, and he’ll be 30 this June. Kittle moved the chains last year, but he has to come back at full strength from an Achilles tear. Trent Williams is still one of the league’s best offensive tackles, but he’s 37 and can only slam into people for so long.

As for Mike Evans, he’s a proven receiver who gives Purdy another trusted target. But at 32, he’s another veteran body the Niners have to manage. The biggest concern is perhaps the fact that 51 names found their way into the 49ers’ injury reports throughout the season. This year, the entire roster has to prove it’s not broken.

As for Purdy, he isn’t Mr. Irrelevant anymore. That 262nd pick out of the 2022 Draft is now a $265 million franchise quarterback of a team with at least one more strong run in store. The tag made for a great story. Now, it just raises the stakes.