Revealed: The True Value Of Brock Purdy To The 49ers

For a team named after the 1849 gold rush in California, the San Francisco 49ers struck gold when they drafted Brock Purdy. 

Purdy was the 262nd and final player selected in last year’s NFL Draft, earning him the title Mr. Irrelevant.

The quarterback made his debut in San Francisco’s Week 11 win at the Miami Dolphins last season, replacing the injured Jimmy Garappolo. Since then, Purdy has been anything but irrelevant. 

Purdy improved his record as starter to 20-5 after last weekend’s 24-21 win over the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional round of the playoffs.

The former Iowa State signal caller has guided the 49ers to the NFC Conference game in both his seasons in the league, and they are favorites with sports betting sites to win Super Bowl LVIII.

At Gambling.com, we broke down his contract to determine how much value the 49ers are getting from Purdy.

Purdy’s Pay Pales Into Insignificance

The role of quarterback is arguably the most important position in sport. The success of a team falls on their shoulders, which is why they get paid the most. 

The exception to that rule is if the quarterback is in the second year of a rookie contract. That’s the situation Purdy finds himself in. Purdy has earned a new and improved contract, regardless of what happens this weekend. 

Purdy, who led the NFL with a 113.0 quarterback rating, is second to Lamar Jackson on most sports betting apps to win this season's MVP award.

Another good performance against the Detroit Lions on Sunday could see Purdy become the new favorite. 

Win Super Bowl LVIII next month, and Purdy can expect to be paid close to what the best quarterbacks are currently being paid.

The league’s elite quarterbacks include Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, who face each other this weekend to possibly set up a meeting with Purdy in Las Vegas, venue of this season’s Super Bowl. 

But for now, with a Super Bowl to win, Purdy has to make do with his $870,000-a-year standard contract. Jackson and Mahomes’ salary for this season are $52.5 million and $52 million respectively. 

With Purdy under center, the 49ers secured the number one seed in the NFC by winning 12 games in the regular season. 

Purdy, who wears number 13 for San Francisco, won their 13th game of the season against the Packers last weekend to keep alive their hopes of winning a sixth Super Bowl. 

That equates to $66,923 per win for Purdy this season. Compare that to the $4 million per win for Mahomes and $3.7 million for Jackson, and you see how well the 49ers are doing with Purdy leading their offense.

Wins are what quarterbacks are often judged on. After that, touchdown passes are often used to highlight their success. 

At the end of the regular season, only Dak Prescott (36) and Jordan Love (32) threw more touchdown passes than Purdy, who threw 31. 

Based on his salary, every touchdown pass Purdy threw this season cost the 49ers $27,127. Jackson’s 26 touchdown passes cost Baltimore just over $2 million each.

While the cost of wins and touchdown passes can be calculated, winning a Super Bowl is priceless. 

Methodology

For this article, we used the 2023 salaries of the four quarterbacks still alive in this season’s NFL playoffs. 

We broke their value to their team down into two categories: how much a win and a touchdown pass cost their team based on what they were paying their quarterback this season.