As one of the NFL‘s most decorated quarterbacks in the history of the game, FOX Sports NFL analyst Tom Brady may know a thing or two about spotting a good QB.
On Monday’s episode of “The Herd,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback spoke with host Colin Cowherd about the “poise” he’s seeing this season from San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, and the potential of the (4-4) Niners squad to go on another run at a championship after coming up just short in last year’s Super Bowl.
“I think it’s poise and composure. It’s calm under chaos,” Brady said of Purdy’s command on the field. “That’s what the quarterback needs to do.
“He walks into that huddle, meets 10 other guys looking at him … and they all have that confidence in Brock as a player.”
As the future Hall of Famer pointed out, this year has been a difficult one for Purdy and the Niners’ offensive line, as injuries have plagued the team this season and limited his ability to utilize his go-to offensive weapons like running back Christian McCaffrey, tight end George Kittle and wideouts Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk. McCaffrey has missed the entire season due to an achilles injury, Aiyuk tore his ACL during the team’s 28-18 loss to the Chiefs in Week 8 and will miss the rest of the year, and Kittle and Samuel have both battled injuries this season as well.
“This offense, to me, even studying the last few days, is a lot different than the one they had last year and the year before,” Brady said. “They had so many weapons the last couple years. Brock essentially was a point guard out there just delivering balls to halfbacks and flipping it out there to Samuels to gain yards, and then he’s got Aiyuk catching in cuts and running for lunch. ‘Oh, you forgot about Kittle. Boom. We’re going to throw over the top of you there.’ This offense has been in and out of a lot of their great players.”
The good news for the 49ers is that McCaffrey is practicing this week for the first time since preseason and reportedly has a strong chance of being able to play when the 49ers face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX) with former Bucs quarterback Brady calling the game.
“I think getting McCaffrey back is so important for this offense, because he provides that passing threat out of the backfield that they just haven’t had this year,” Brady continued. “So now the defense has to come up closer to the line of scrimmage to defend the run with Christian as well as the pass. And that, to me, opens up more of the intermediate and deeper parts of the field for Brock. They’ve kind of been throwing more to these intermediate-type targets on the field, which I don’t think is necessarily the strength of that offense.”
As for filling the void Aiyuk leaves, Brady sees WRs Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings as the next men up for the Niners, believing they can both play key roles in the veteran’s absence.
“Losing Aiyuk is a brutal loss, but they drafted Pearsall in the first round. He’s going to get his legs underneath them. You still got Jennings, who, to me, is one of the most underrated receivers in the NFL. [He] performed so well in the Super Bowl [and] they have a ton of confidence in him,” Brady said.
Ultimately, Brady believes the Niners still “have pieces in place”, and refuses to count them out with Purdy under center and head coach Kyle Shanahan at the helm.
“They’ve always seemed to turn around their season around the bye week,” Brady pointed out. This is when they need to do it. They just had their bye week. We’ll see … I would never count out the 49ers. I think they’re so well-coached. They got a great system in place, a great culture of guys that know how to win. You know, those are all the things you look for with the Niners.”
[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]
National Football League
San Francisco 49ers
Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more