From being the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to signing a massive contract extension, Brock Purdy’s journey has been anything but ordinary. On May 16, 2025, the San Francisco 49ers agreed to a five-year, $265 million extension with Purdy — a deal that makes him the seventh-highest paid quarterback in the league.
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Purdy has significantly outperformed his rookie contract. Over three seasons, he earned just $2.8 million while going 23–12 as a starter, leading San Francisco to back-to-back playoff runs and a Super Bowl appearance. Given his production, a raise was inevitable. But the size of the raise has sparked mixed reactions.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio was among those skeptical of the deal. He argued that while Purdy deserved to be paid, $53 million per year might be excessive, hinting that it was an overpaid deal. Florio believes a contract closer to the structure of Kirk Cousins’ four-year, $180 million deal with the Falcons — which pays out $45 million per season — would have been more reasonable.
“People who are slightly more astute — and me — would say $53 million is a little bit much,” Florio said. “When you look at it as a six-year deal that pays out $45 million per year, okay, that’s far more reasonable. That’s what it is.”
To become just the seventh-highest paid quarterback with his deal shows the 49ers don’t view him as a top-five quarterback. Still, he was given a lofty contract. And in today’s quarterback market, that’s often all it takes — the belief from a franchise that you’re their guy.
Notably, Florio’s co-host and former NFL quarterback Chris Simms echoed that sentiment. “Forty-five million a year, I can get behind that,” Simms said. “I think it’s fair to question how great he is. This is a team that’s kind of rebuilding on the fly.”
It’s worth noting that quarterback contracts don’t always align with rankings or talent. Patrick Mahomes, for example, is also making $45 million per year — the same as Cousins — only because he signed a 10-year deal with Kansas City when the salary cap was lower. At present, Brock has a better deal than seasoned QBs including Jalen Hurts, Matthew Stafford, Geno Smith, and Sam Darnold, to name a few.
Earlier, a few analysts also suggested that Purdy could be given a deal similar to Baker Myfield’s 3-year, $100M deal with the Buccaneers. However, the 49ers trusted their starting QB and offered him one of the biggest contracts in their franchise history.
In the current market, timing often dictates value more than accolades. Purdy’s extension, fair or not, is simply the latest example of a team paying big for stability at quarterback.
