In a recent article by David Bonilla, new San Francisco 49ers cornerback Jack Jones is quoted as saying that Brock Purdy's job is made easy by the players around him.

"You can make quarterback easy to play, and I think that was Cam Newton's argument about Brock Purdy," Jones said. "They was making quarterback easy for him to play. You can hand the ball off 20 times to Christian McCaffrey, and then dump it off 10 times to Christian McCaffrey, and then dump it off 10 more times to George Kittle."


Newton had apparently asserted that Brock is a game manager.

The problem, though, is that Jones doesn't have his facts straight.

For instance, McCaffrey had more than 20 carries in fewer than half the games last season. He averaged under four yards per carry. What that means is the Niners were frequently working with third-and-long.

And not only did McCaffrey not catch the ball 10 times per game, but he was not even targeted 10 times per game.

In addition, George Kittle missed six games, or a third of the season, and when he was available, he had barely six targets per game, not ten catches.


Jones compared Purdy to the truly great quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. Now, I am not going to suggest that Brock is the equal (yet) of those two, but if the argument is that he had people to throw to and they didn't, please.

Because, obviously, Brock has Kittle, and Brady certainly can't match that (said sarcastically), not with Hall of Famer Randy Moss and future Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski. And Mahomes has that Hall of Fame nobody, Travis Kelce, helping him out.

And let's throw in Peyton Manning. How difficult he had it with only Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark. And he had no one to hand the ball off to ... except Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James.

But Brock just checks the ball down, while those others completed the deep passes. And yet in 2023, Purdy led the league in air yards per attempt. And without his best receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, out all of last season, George Kittle out for a third, and his No. 2, Ricky Pearsall, out for over half, Brock was still top 10 in AYP.

Cornerbacks can have an opinion when evaluating how hard it is to cover the receivers they have played against. But Jones has never even played against the 49ers, not even seen Purdy from the opposing sideline.


It was important to back up Newton, though, since the former NFL quarterback also had never played against Purdy and, in his broadcasting career, has never called a 49ers game.

It is also instructive that what Newton did best in his career—running and throwing the deep ball—are things Brock does not do as well.

Except, Brock does.

Of course, he is not the runner Newton was—few in history are—but he's a better deep ball thrower. In 2024, Brock led the league in completion percentage on deep balls at 60%. As a point of comparison, Newton's career average on balls of any distance is under 60%.

And of course, Jones doesn't take into account the difficulty of Shanahan's system. Matt Ryan, a league MVP, said it took him two years to master it. Brock took over midway through his rookie year and had it down.


So, how should one respond to Jack Jones' uneducated belief that Brock has it easy? It might be easier to say time will tell him. In about three months, he will get torched in training camp. During the season, he will see Brock school top defenses.

And not because Purdy is a dink-and-dunk game manager, but because, as former great quarterbacks such as Tom Brady have said, he is elite.

Written By:

Jack Stewart


Jack Stewart was educated at Alabama and Emory and was a Brittain Fellow at Georgia Tech. His poetry has been published widely in the US and several other countries. His book No Reason was published in the Poeima Poetry Series in 2020.
All articles by Jack Stewart


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