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NFL Hall of Famer and legendary San Francisco quarterback Steve Young hopes that 49ers’ quarterback Brock Purdy will have the chance to showcase his legs more often in the future. In fact, Young thinks it’s a necessity.
Speaking on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” show, Young said Purdy’s running ability is being underutilized, and even made one specific comparison sure to raise some eyebrows.
“I said during the season a couple of times, I think Kyle [Shanahan] should call RPO’s for Brock,” Young said. “We should put him on the run out of the huddle where he’s going to carry it. The threat he needs to bring, we understand the processing power… he can do 80 percent of what Jayden [Daniels] is doing with his legs.”
Young said that watching this year’s playoffs and seeing designed runs for quarterbacks like Daniels, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts has shown what the modern quarterback needs in his arsenal.
“I think you have to call plays for it,” Young said. “You have to threaten the line of scrimmage every time if you’re going to go to the Super Bowl. It feels like obviously into the future you have to have a quarterback that’s going to threaten the line of scrimmage every time they take the ball into their hands.
“Every time I watch the playoffs it reminded me of that truth again,” Young continued. “And I think you guys are right, Brock can do that. But it’s about risk more, because the ball’s in his hands at the end of the play more often and that’s risky, but I think it has to happen.”
Purdy was able to use his legs more this season, tallying career-highs in both carries (66) and yards (323). He also found the endzone five times on the ground, gaining nearly five yards per carry. Clearly that’s nowhere near the utilization of Daniels’ rushing attack (148 carries for 891 yards) but Purdy has proven himself to be effective when called upon to run.
One major hurdle to using Purdy’s legs more is keeping the third-year quarterback healthy. Purdy was unable to finish the season after suffering a right elbow contusion with nerve inflammation in a December 30 matchup with the Detroit Lions.
However, with a healthy Christian McCaffrey set to return for the 2025 season, the possibility of more RPO’s for an offense that fell to 14th in scoring could be awfully tempting.
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