Last season, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy elevated the 49ers offense by putting up ludicrous numbers on intermediate throws. In his second season he’s adding a new explosive element to San Francisco’s passing attack by stretching the field vertically with a ton of success.
Purdy has thrown 38 deep passes (20-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage) this season. He’s completed 24 of them for an NFL-high 63.2 percent completion rate. Purdy has eight touchdowns and just one interception on those throws, while earning the NFL’s highest deep-throw grade from analytics site Pro Football Focus.
While his 38 total attempts rank 17th out of 27 qualified QBs, his 12.5 percent attempt rate ties him with Broncos QB Russell Wilson and Bills QB Josh Allen. He’s also throwing deep at a higher rate than Chargers QB Justin Herbert and Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence.
This is an entirely new weapon for the 49ers’ passing game. With Jimmy Garoppolo under center the deep throw wasn’t done often enough or with enough success to make defenses respect it.
His best year was in 2019 when he completed 57.1 percent of his deep throws with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. During that entire season though he threw just 35 passes 20-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage and completed 20 of them. Purdy in 11 games this season already has 24 completions on 38 attempts. Garoppolo’s deep throw rate of 6.6 percent was nearly half of Purdy’s this year.
From 2020-2022 Garoppolo in 32 games completed only 23 of his 77 deep tosses with five touchdowns and six interceptions.
That inability to scare defenses in the deep third of the field muddied the middle of the field and forced the offense to rely on shorter throws in heavier traffic where yards after the catch were a requirement for explosive plays.
Those short and intermediate throws are still crucial and YAC will always be prevalent in an offense that features Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, but they’re no longer a necessity for explosive passing plays for San Francisco.
Purdy has proven to be an efficient and effective deep ball thrower, forcing defenses to stretch themselves vertically while also trying to stop the horizontal aspects of San Francisco’s offense. That new two-pronged attack is a key reason the 49ers’ offense has taken off with Purdy under center.
