#brock-purdy

#brock-purdy

I feel like we've found our stride and we've just got to keep it up, Purdy said Wednesday.

The Bears' defense is having an extraordinary year turning the ball over. The ball-hawk brothers Kevin Byard and Nahshon Wright are showing a preternatural ability to read a quarterback's mind and, as such, Chicago lead the league in interceptions (21) and total turnovers (31). They need to keep the giveaways flowing to cut the legs from a San Francisco offense quietly becoming a juggernaut.

It was second-and-goal from the 9-yard line Monday night and quarterback Brock Purdy rolled to his right and attempted to squeeze in a pass to tight end Jake Tonges, who had a sliver of space before he went out of bounds in the end zone. Tonges caught the ball but it was ruled incomplete. Upon closer inspection, it appeared Tonges actually caught the ball and managed to drag both toes just before going out of bounds.

When the participants for Super Bowl LX are determined, it will have a lot to do with quarterback play coming down the stretch in the regular season as well as the playoffs. And guess what? The resurgent 49ers are right in the mix. The 49ers are always better offensively executing bootlegs and rollouts, and Brock Purdy has been very good the last two games against Cleveland and Tennessee. Neither are world beaters, although the Browns' defense is formidable.

Can Brock Purdy throw the football the way this offense needs him to? He couldn't do it in the 49ers' loss to the Jaguars earlier this year - Purdy's lone game between absences because of his turf-toe injury. Upon his second return, he was ripping the ball downfield against the Cardinals. But Monday night? Well, that performance raises all sorts of red flags.

The 49ers, as first reported Friday by The Athletic, have voided the $25 million bonus guaranteed for 2026 in Aiyuk's contract, which was contentiously hashed out prior to last season (four years, $120 million). That move signals Aiyuk's potential ouster next spring, and while that mutual adjustment happened months ago, Aiyuk continues to report for morning conditioning sessions at the team facility, according to a team source.

There is a stubborn narrative in football that insists on placing the most important and dynamic players on the field quarterbacks into neatly defined boxes. There's the devil-may-care Gun Slinger, the veteran (it's always someone over 30) Field General, and, most damningly, the robotic, unremarkable but reliable Game Manager. For the better part of his young, meteoric career, Brock Purdy has been shackled to that last, reductive label.