Will it be the team friendly deal or will he reset the market?
Enjoy it, San Francisco 49ers fans. This year we got slapped with the Brandon Aiyuk “will they or won’t they” trade drama, guest starring Deebo Samuel with a cameo from Jauan Jennings. As this winds down (oh please, be over) it’s time to remember it was a reprieve of any quarterback drama in Santa Clara. Don’t think this is the “new” normal, it’s a safe bet to think that craziness will return 2025. That’s because it’s Brock Purdy’s final year of his rookie contract and the point when the 49ers can start negotiating. Plus it’s the 49ers, you can’t have an offseason without something like this.
Remember, despite what you may read and hear, the 49ers cannot negotiate a new deal with Brock Purdy yet. Given that he’s had two strong years putting up top-10 numbers and he’s not even counted in the team’s top-51 salaries for salary cap purposes, when the time comes, he’s going to be asking for the keys to CitiBank—and the 49ers know that day is approaching.
An extension is almost a given, it’s not how much are the 49ers going to offer, it’s how much Brock Purdy will ask for. So that begs the question, how much?
Purdy could break the bank and get top-5 money. Remember when Jimmy Garoppolo did that after six or so starts? Purdy has taken the 49ers to two or so NFC Championship games in just as many years. So something resetting the market is in play. There’s also the question of if he’d go the route of players like Tom Brady where he’d negotiate a possible smaller salary in order for the 49ers to retain the team around him.
Former NFL general manager—turned ESPN Analyst Mike Tannenbaum gave his take on what the 49ers may do during an ESPN NFL Live segment, suggesting they franchise tag him after the 2025 season.
He’ll have basically one year left, basically after this year. And then of course they can franchise him. I don’t expect them to be at the very top of the market. You know, the $52, $53, $54 million dollar range. Maybe somewhere in the mid 40s and say to Brock Purdy, “look we can give you a massive guarantee, a really good average per year, maybe make you the top eight or nine, but we aren’t going to put you at the top of the market. But we can at least wait two or more years. I think they will find some middle ground. I agree with Mina’s (ESPN Reporter Mina Kimes) assessment. If you can keep Brandon Aiyuk as a No. 1 that would be great. That’s one of the things I’d be talking to Brock Purdy about. That look, “Josh Allen he did his extension, all those defensive players graduated. If we can keep you a little bit lower than that, hopefully we can keep as much of this core together as possible.
That’s optimistic. The 49ers would be able to franchise tag purdy in 2026. Using projections from 2025 as a baseline, $42 million would be the neighborhood (per Overthecap). Reminder: that’s 2025 projections, it’s a safe bet that number will be larger when the 49ers can issue the tag in 2026 should they go that route on a quarterback. Just to remind everyone, franchise tags are fully guaranteed. So should Purdy get injured two or three games in like other quarterbacks you may have heard of, that’s an estimated $50 million still going to him.
It’s also optimistic thinking Purdy could take a team friendly deal. As said above, it’s not unheard of because Tom Brady did the same thing, as did Peyton Manning. Patrick Mahomes did it recently. But just because those names did doesn’t mean Purdy is going to follow in their footsteps. Quarterbacks have been burned with this before.
A recent example from the 49ers would be Colin Kaepernick, whom took a team friendly deal to keep his offensive line and wide receivers. Within a year or two, all of that was gone, along with head coach Jim Harbaugh. Before you knew it, Jim Tomsula was coaching and the 49ers had a load of cap space. Not exactly following through. Unless you count Eric Pears or Reggie Bush as a way to make the team competitive.
Kaepernick would eventually opt out of his contract, but by then, the 49ers were going to cut him anyways.
The point is, taking a team friendly deal can bite a quarterback hard and there’s plenty of evidence where the team doesn’t follow through or someone “thought” they heard something else. Kaepernick is just one such story from the 49ers’ camp.
So there’s both sides of the coin. Maybe Purdy will take “a little bit lower” than his peers so the 49ers can keep the core together? Maybe he finally wants to be paid after all this time (and no one can blame him). Who knows. It’s definitely going to be dominating headlines once the 49ers can actually do an extension.
Do you see Purdy resetting the market in 2025 or taking “a bit less” to retain the core like Tannenbaum suggests? Do you see another exhausting storyline next year?
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