Brock Purdy successfully completed his first step as the 49ers’ starting quarterback. He got through a week of practice without looking or acting like a seventh-round pick in his first week as an NFL starter.
Purdy on Thursday talked to reporters about the transition and how he’s handling some of the differences in his preparation. Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday confirmed Purdy took the dramatic change in stride, and gave perhaps the best compliment: nothing was different for the 49ers.
“Yeah, it’s been real good. Nothing’s really been different,” Shanahan said in his post-practice press conference. “It’s a big difference not having Jimmy in there, but you haven’t felt like a rookie’s coming in or anything. He handled Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday very well and I think the players and we expected him to, but you never know when a guy gets the first week where everyone’s looking at him, sometimes they get nervous and then the players start to look at each other if it’s bad, but it wasn’t that case at all. He was same guy as he has been and we expect that to stay.”
Expecting Purdy to step in and immediately start slinging the ball around the field is probably setting the bar too high. That’s not what the 49ers will require from him to continue having success as a team.
What San Francisco needs is for Purdy to avoid turnovers and rookie mistakes. There were definitely a few in his three quarters against the Dolphins, and there will surely be some as he continues adapting to the NFL in his first start Sunday. Limiting those mistakes will be key though, and so far it sounds like he has enough of a veteran presence that the 49ers are confident he can guide the ship in Garoppolo’s absence.
Chances are it’s going to be more different for the 49ers on Sunday than it was during the week in practice. As long as it isn’t too dramatically different though they’ll have a shot to win every game Purdy starts.
