What a Brock Purdy extension could look like for 49ers

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And there’s a legitimate question if Purdy is worth a top-tier QB deal, based on his uneven performance last season, when he was unable to carry the offense with key players like Christian McCaffrey, Aiyuk and Williams unavailable. San Francisco finished 6-11 with an injury-depleted roster. On the other hand, only Lamar Jackson (106.1) has a better passer rating than Purdy (104.9) over the past three seasons.

Despite Purdy’s struggles last season, J.I. Halsell believes he has earned a deal that pays him among the top 10 quarterbacks in the league. Halsell is the executive vice president of client compensation for 3 Strand Sports. He is a former salary cap specialist for the Washington Commanders and worked in that capacity for the NFL Management Council. Halsell is also a certified NFL agent. 

Currently, 10 quarterbacks have contracts that average at least $50 million per year. They include Dak Prescott at the top of the market at $60 million. Following Prescott are Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence, each at $55 million a year. Tua Tagovailoa is No. 6 at $53.1 million, followed by Jared Goff ($53 million), Justin Herbert ($52.5 million), Jackson ($52 million) and Jalen Hurts ($51 million). 

With the league’s salary cap increasing each year, Halsell says that player contracts should reflect that jump in revenue. This year, the salary cap increased $23.8 million — from $255.4 million in 2024 to $279.2 million this year, an 8.5% increase. 

As a result, according to his calculations, Halsell believes Purdy’s contract should average $55 million per year. 

“Without trying to project what the guarantee is going to be, I think just at an average per year metric standpoint, $55 million per year makes a ton of sense,” Halsell told FOX Sports. “Now, someone is going to be like, ‘$55 million per year, that’s more than Patrick Mahomes got.’ OK, but the salary cap has increased exponentially since the Patrick Mahomes deal got done, right?

“It’s increased even since Dak Prescott’s deal last September. And so, relative to the increase in the cap and him being a legitimate starting quarterback in the league, if they were to get a deal done, I think $55 million per year makes sense.”

With projected escalation of the league’s salary cap, Purdy’s contract in the quarterback market could pale in comparison in future years to someone like Jayden Daniels, who earned NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors last season.

“It’s completely reasonable that Jayden Daniels, when the Commanders give him his second contract and he continues to play at a high level, that he could be a $90-million-per-year quarterback, based upon the trajectory that the salary cap is increasing,” Halsell said. “If we’re talking about market equity, we’re saying that the top quarterbacks get 20 percent of what the salary cap was when they executed the contract. In the Jayden Daniels math, that equals out to $90 million per year.” 

Halsell believes that if the 49ers paid Purdy $55 million per year, it wouldn’t close their Super Bowl window. (Rams WR Puka Nacua suggested otherwise recently.) He points to how the Philadelphia Eagles have executed their salary cap, paying Hurts while keeping foundational players on the roster like running back Saquon Barkley, receiver A.J. Brown, offensive lineman Lane Johnson and linebacker Zack Baun. 

“When you look at [the Eagles] as a model of how to marry up the scouting relative to the cap management, it shows you can re-sign your guys and still build a winning roster,” Halsell said. “But any club, regardless of what the contracts and cap management situation is, you’re going to have to draft well. That’s just roster-building 101.

“So, assuming you draft well, you can navigate the cap and get your core guys extended.” 

As far as building out a roster with a quarterback who is more of a game manager like Purdy, Halsell says teams can look to what the Detroit Lions have done with Goff at the controls, surrounding him with talented pieces and letting him be an elite orchestrator of the offense. 

“When you look at the Detroit example and the success the 49ers had on Brock’s rookie deal, it is about putting the pieces around the quarterback,” Halsell said. “That probably supports the argument that maybe Brock should not be paid at the top of the market. That says your success in some amount is derived from the players around you. 

“So, ‘We’re not going to pay you top of market like a Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow. But we still need to pay you a contract commensurate of a starting quarterback.’” 

No matter the final numbers for Purdy, he figures to average at least 10 times his 2025 salary.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.

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