How negotiations unraveled between Brock Purdy and the 49ers en route to massive deal

The San Francisco 49ers officially announced their five-year, $265 million extension for star quarterback Brock Purdy, ending a saga that never really took over in San Francisco.

Purdy, who was entering the fourth and final season of his rookie contract this season, had been in negotiations with the 49ers for much of the offseason, but there were questions as to when a deal would be struck.

After all, the 49ers had dragged negotiations for extensions with several stars deep into the offseason in years past, which negatively impacted team morale and the contracts themselves.

That wasn’t the case here, though, as San Francisco got its third major extension done in a month, keeping Purdy on a five-year, $265 million deal that makes him a 49er through the 2030 season.

How did negotiations unravel to lead to this result?

“Obviously, I was hopeful to get something done early and it would have been nice to have it done going into the offseason program as a whole,” Purdy acknowledged on Wednesday when speaking to the media. “But obviously, there’s just a process to it and both sides have their views and that’s the whole point of negotiating. But at the end of the day, I didn’t want to lose sight of the main goal here, knowing that I’m going to be the quarterback for this team this year, and I have to come in and get better and grow our locker room and help the new guys and I just wanted to be here from the jump and be the guy in there to continue to lead this place.

“Obviously, we have to get better in areas and I have to get better and all the things, but being here day one was a huge emphasis for me, regardless of having the contract done or not. But I had a lot of faith in obviously my agent and the Niners that we were going to get something done. Didn’t know when, exactly, but being here for phase one was huge for me.”

Purdy ultimately showed up for the first stage of offseason workouts last month, indicating extension talks were in a good place, and now will have no worries when organized team activities (OTAs) start next week.

Overall, when looking at his entire journey, there’s much to reflect upon for Purdy, who was overlooked as the last pick in the draft back in 2022.

“I definitely have done some reflecting and just the process of all of it, not trying to be somebody that I’m not and rush the process of being a football player and getting better,” Purdy said. “Obviously, my [high school] recruiting process was late, third-string quarterback going into my freshman year, then getting thrown into the starting role, getting drafted last, making the team, being a backup the whole season and Week 13, getting thrown in and then leading the Niners from that moment on.

“So, there’s just been a process to this whole thing in life. That’s what I’m trying to wrap my head around is, as a kid, obviously you see all these guys on TV, [former QBs] Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and you want to be that one day. And for me, what I’ve realized, it just doesn’t happen overnight, you’ve got to go through good, bad, tough times, the hard workouts, all the things to get there and how you respond to adversity and all the things. But man, am I grateful to be able to just stay the course and this is just my story.

“I haven’t tried to live out anybody else’s story. It’s just been where God has had me and I’ve been all in on it. And extremely grateful to be in this position and it fires me up more than anything to want to continue to get better and help this organization win. And nothing is set in stone yet in terms of how we are as a team or this year or the future going forward. It’s every single day I have to come in and be present and work to earn success and just do my part for this team. So, I’m excited.”

With a brand new contract comes big expectations for Purdy, who will now be tasked with bringing the franchise its first Super Bowl since 1995. But, for now, it’s a sigh of relief that his extension was completed early, with motivations being there on both sides to do so.