Brock Purdy is the 49er paying biggest price for Brandon Aiyuk situation

A key reason why the 49ers were willing to commit to Brock Purdy as their long-term answer at the quarterback position was the transformative impact his playing style has had on their offense.

Purdy’s willingness to be aggressive and attack downfield is atypical for 49ers quarterbacks under Kyle Shanahan. He found great success in going deep in 2023, with his prowess in that area one of the primary fuels for an offense that was a juggernaut in a season that ended in agonizing Super Bowl defeat.

The increased accessibility of deep areas of the field to the 49ers passing game contributed to a shift to a more dropback heavy attack in 2024, a year in which many believe Purdy produced his best quarterback performances despite San Francisco seeing its season lost to a huge amount of injuries.

Purdy’s turf toe injury has limited the 49ers’ downfield passing game for most of this season, with Mac Jones having success while predominantly attacking short and intermediate areas.

That changed upon Purdy’s return in Week 11 as the 49ers racked up three passing plays of 20 yards or more in thrashing the Arizona Cardinals. Purdy, though, was atrocious throwing deep on Monday as San Francisco saw off the Carolina Panthers despite his three interceptions, all of which came on throws of 15 yards or more, in a performance that had some reigniting conversation around a potential quarterback controversy with Jones.

Poor ball placement was the primary reason for Purdy’s turnovers. His second interception — a heave to endzone intended for Ricky Pearsall when Purdy could have scrambled into open field or hit George Kittle underneath — was a poor decision, but that ball and Purdy’s first interception might have been completed to their intended targets had the throws been made with better accuracy and timing. The third came on a superb play in zone coverage from Jaycee Horn.

As such, it’s difficult to pin much blame on the wide receivers, but Purdy’s downfield struggles also shone a brighter light on the continued absence and seemingly likely departure of Brandon Aiyuk, who was a huge reason why Purdy was so successful attacking deep two seasons ago.

Only C.J. Stroud had a better passer rating on throws of 20 yards or more (min. 20 deep attempts) than Purdy in 2023 (138.1) in 2023, per Pro Football Focus. Purdy threw 11 touchdowns to one interception on such throws in that campaign.

Five of those touchdown passes went to Aiyuk, who had the best passer rating when targeted (149.3) on throws of 20 yards or more (min. 20 deep targets), with his skills as en elite separator at all three levels coming to the fore in a breakout campaign that saw him earn second-team All-Pro honors.

Correlation is not causation and Purdy has managed to hit some big-time downfield balls in limited action this season with Aiyuk conspicuous by his seemingly now permanent absence.

Aiyuk’s presence would obviously not have any impact on Purdy’s arm or accuracy, but — given the previous numbers — it’s easy to come to the conclusion that the 49ers’ quarterback would have a substantially easier time going downfield with Aiyuk on the field breaking free from coverage in the manner he did consistently in 2023.

But the 49ers have gone from expecting Aiyuk to get back on the field to hoping they can salvage a relationship that has devolved in spectacular fashion. In other words, a positive resolution that gets him back on the field with Purdy does not seem likely.

There is plenty of blame to go around for how the Aiyuk saga has played out. However, outside of the financial impact for Aiyuk, it is arguably Purdy who is paying the biggest price for the breakdown in relations between the Niners and their one-time top receiver.