In a mailbag published on Wednesday, Tim Kawakami of The Athletic indicated that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy would someday get a deal akin to the five-year contract extension that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts signed this spring.
“In April 2023, just months after that Super Bowl trip, Hurts signed a five-year, $255M contract — $51M per year, but that average is puffed up by some tacked-on salaries at the back end that aren’t fully guaranteed and will be either wiped away or replaced by a new deal,” Kawakami explained. “In real terms, Hurts got $179.3M guaranteed over four years, an average of $44.8M. That’s the number I’d circle for Purdy and the 49ers when the negotiations start next year.”
Purdy is not eligible for an extension until after the 2024 season.
Hurts and Purdy already share a number of career-related similarities. Hurts was named a Most Valuable Player finalist after leading the 2022 Eagles to the Super Bowl.
Purdy began this past February as an MVP candidate, helping the 49ers reach Super Bowl LVIII. Neither quarterback won the championship games, although both put their teams in winning situations at various stages in the games.
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Much has been said this spring about how the 49ers’ decision to pay Purdy next offseason will hurt the club’s great players due to salary-cap limits. Kawakami stated that the Eagles set a precedent for how to handle cap hits connected to a quarterback’s agreement.
“Hurts’ cap hits were kept low early in the deal with some fancy (collective bargaining agreement) tricks — he had a $6.1M cap hit last year and is at $13.6M this year,” Kawakami added. “But the Eagles’ deal with Hurts underlines two things: 1) the Eagles were banking on Hurts’ long-term staying power; 2) Hurts knew that his deal would be dwarfed almost instantly by (Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow) and others and didn’t care about the QB salary rankings.”
According to Pro Football Reference, Purdy finished his first full regular season as an NFL quarterback topping the league among qualified players with a 72.8 adjusted QBR, a 113.0 passer rating, and 9.6 yards per pass attempt.
If he improves on those figures in the coming season, as some feel he will, he could realistically wait until September 2025 to reset the quarterback market.
