Brock Purdy crashed back down to Earth in 2024 after an extended honeymoon phase with the San Francisco 49ers in 2022 and 2023. He led the league in TD rate, yards per attempt, and passer rating in 2023, but all of those marks saw free falls for Purdy in 2024. His TD-INT ratio going from 31-11 to 20-12 last season was not exactly encouraging. However, the blame can’t all be placed on Purdy.
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In 2023, the 49ers were third in points for, second in yards for, third in points against, and eighth in yards against. They remained top 10 in total offense and total defense in 2024, but they fell to 13th in points for and way down to 29th in points allowed.
It was truly a team effort, as the 49ers went 6-11, their worst record since 2018. Purdy was also sacked more and at a higher rate than he had in his first two seasons. While discussing the disappointing campaign recently, Purdy placed part of the blame on the underachieving season on the condensed offseason the organization dealt with after playing in Super Bowl 58.
Many, including Shannon Sharpe, viewed this as a shameless excuse for the team’s collective faltering last season. Sharpe was especially annoyed at the use of this excuse by a guy who is looking for a record-breaking extension (the 49ers have unloaded several contracts to seemingly prepare for the Purdy deal) after a down year in 2024.
“And you want me to pay this man $50+ million a year? I guess the Chiefs are just exhausted, I don’t even know how the Chiefs can even summon up to play, because the last six or seven years, they’ve gone to six Super Bowls. How can they even function? Just because you think something, doesn’t mean you have to say it. I’m not in the business of excuse-making. Bro, just keep that to yourself… Bro, nobody’s trying to hear them excuses.”
Sharpe makes a good point with the Chiefs comparison. Since Patrick Mahomes became their starting QB in 2018, they have made it at least to the AFC Championship every year, advancing to the Super Bowl in five of those seven. And yet, we’ve never heard a peep or complaint from Mahomes or Travis Kelce about an abbreviated offseason. Stephen A. Smith piled on, asking whether the 49ers were subjected to unique circumstances.
“Were you guys, as San Francisco 49ers, as members of the National Football League, subjected to anything different than the other 31 teams are subjected to? If that answer is no, then what the hell are you talking about? It makes absolutely no sense for you to articulate that publicly because what you’re doing is using that as an excuse, and you’re not recognizing that he’s really inviting more scrutiny.”
Chris Canty also told Brock Purdy he better buckle up, as the offseason is likely to only get shorter with the possibility of an 18-game season looming. We agree that the whole condensed offseason schedule thing was a bit silly to bring up. However, the 49ers actually were subjected to something different than the rest of the league in 2024.
No team had worse injury luck than Purdy & the 49ers in 2024
NFL journalist Aaron Schatz has created an “Adjusted Games Lost” metric to calculate the impact of injuries on teams across the league. Here’s a quick explanation of how it works:
“Adjusted games lost doesn’t just add up total injuries. It accounts for both absent players and those playing at less than 100%, and it specifically measures injuries to expected starters and important situational players rather than little-used backups.”
Using those metrics, they are able to create a number to determine AGL for a team across a season. In 2023, the 49ers were healthy as a horse, sporting the fourth-lowest overall AGL at 34.5. However, they were dead last in the metric in 2024, with a whopping 141.2 AGL, nearly 25 points higher than the next most unlucky team.
That included a 31st-ranking on offense (largely impacted by the second-highest team RB AGL in history, at 32.2) and a 30th-ranking on defense.
There were major injuries all over the team. Rather than blaming an offseason shortened by maybe two weeks, Brock Purdy should have focused on the team’s overall health. All of Purdy’s major weapons missed various amounts of time, and the defense and offensive line were peppered with ailments too.
One would think that injury luck will flip back in their favor in 2025. That’s why the 49ers are currently the odds-on favorites to win the NFC West in 2025 despite finishing last in the division in 2024.
