SANTA CLARA – Among many traits, Brock Purdy’s decision-making ability is one of his most important qualities and 49ers game coordinator Chris Foerster was impressed.
The second-year quarterback hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 17 of the 2022 season and entered the record books with his 95.2 percent completion rate in the club’s Week 4 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
“The guy plays the position really well,” Foerster said Thursday. “That’s all I can say. He’s just a quarterback. From the moment he started playing it, all he sees is the field. His ability to know where to go with the football.”
Foerster, who has been coaching for 30 years, has seen many quarterbacks throughout his career and believes Purdy’s ability to make quick, accurate decisions could be attributed to his physical attributes.
At 6-foot-3, Purdy may not be able to see both the offensive line and the opposing pass rush coming his way during the play. With that in mind, the Iowa State product needs to be processed more quickly than a quarterback who is three or four inches taller.
“I always think there’s a lot to it when you look at a guy’s physical abilities,” Foerster said. “If you look at his height, his weight and his speed, you can tell he’s a slightly smaller guy. With a guy, there are all these physical limitations that then affect how he has to play the position, and he understands everything.”
Purdy is also a product of his past and present coaching careers, and the offensive line coach believes it’s not a given that the quarterback will apply everything he’s learned to what he does on the field. In game situations, it’s possible for a player to slip back into old habits, but Purdy isn’t prone to that.
“The ability to make decisions and play the ball accurately is something he has learned over time,” Foerster said. “It’s remarkable because some people never learn. Some guys are always late to throw the ball. They will simply rely more on arm talent.
“They’ll wait for someone to open up before they throw it and still get away with it. Or they’ll rely on their feet and say, I don’t care if the pocket comes in around me, I’m going to make a play.”
Purdy’s most impressive performance to date may be the club’s Week 2 victory over the New York Giants, in which he faced an 85 percent blitz rate. The play-caller’s decisions had to be made much more quickly than in any of his previous starts in the NFL.
Regardless of how Purdy developed his decision-making, it was impressive for Foerster. The quarterback has a 72.3 percent completion rate and a 115.1 rating in his four games in 2023, and a career completion rate of 69.1 percent and a 110.4 rating in his 13 regular-season contests.
Purdy and the 49ers face their biggest challenge yet of the 2023 season when they host the Dallas Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
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