The mercy kill for a lost season finally arrived in the holiday rain of a Great America parking lot, on a Thursday night in December.
Rams 12, 49ers 6. It was worse than it sounds.
Thank the football gods.
It was never going to happen this year, as I was just saying to my pal Geno Smith as we trotted into the Levi’s Stadium end zone together, untouched by human hands on the 49ers defense.
It wasn’t going to happen ever since Dre Greenlaw crumpled to the turf in Las Vegas, ever since the overtime coin flip, ever since Jon Feliciano lashed out at Spencer Burford on Twitter that night, ever since Brandon Aiyuk’s better half put out a vague goodbye post on social the next day, ever since Arik Armstead got cut, ever since Eric Kendricks slipped out of their free agent grasp, ever since Aiyuk continued sour springtime negotiations in public, ever since Christian McCaffrey turned up with a bum Achilles in late July . . .
You get the picture. We don’t have enough Jock Blog space to get to the part where Ricky Pearsall gets shot in Union Square, or personal tragedies visit the Ward and Williams families, or how Kyle Shahanan’s late-and-close dossier continues to get hacked by NFC West foes. And we certainly don’t have enough space to talk about Brandon Aiyuk’s shorts or Deebo Samuel’s tweets.
That’s all a long way of saying: Good riddance, 2024 49ers season.
Now what are we going to do about Brock Purdy?
More than Devondre Campbell’s pout, more than Deebo Samuel’s flop, more than Kyle Shanahan’s very bad year, my big takeaway from Thursday night is how underwhelming Brock Purdy was.
The Niners needed a winning performance. He very much did not deliver.
And that leads us to the impending Brock Purdy contract drama.
How much is Brock Purdy worth and how will that answer affect the 49ers’ ability to compete in the next five years?
How much of Brock Purdy’s worth is determined by the marketplace? How much of Brock Purdy’s worth relates to Dan Prescott making $60 million per year and Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love making $55 million per year? How much of Brock Purdy’s worth relates to Tua Tagaviloa and Jared Goff making $53 million per year?
How much of Brock Purdy’s worth is determined by PATRICK MAHOMES making $45 million per year?
Mahomes signed that deal in 2020, which might as well be the Pleistocene Epoch in terms of QB contracts.
Let’s answer: In an ideal world, Purdy accepts a $45 million-is per year contract from the 49ers. That’s plenty of money for chewing gum, as our old pal David Letterman once said of his big money deal at CBS. Not to mention a fleet of John Deere tractors and all the corn crops the Arizona kid wants in his adopted home state of Iowa.
The main guy who wouldn’t like Purdy accepting a steep discount would likely be his agent. However, the heck with agents. Didn’t Jerry Maguire try to make his agency big on heart, light on money? Next thing you know, he’s using Renee Zellweger’s single mom kitchen as his office.
Let’s spin a fantasy. My gut tells me that Purdy would believe in the Tom Brady Ideal — that is, take a little less to make sure the team around him is talented and fits under the salary cap.
Am I insane for thinking this? Certainly legendary KISS front man Gene Simmons would say so. We used to play his sound byte — “be suspicious of a person who says they don’t want more money; this person is a liar.” Quoth the Demon: “I’ll never stop hunting more money.”
This means Paraag Marathe must ask Purdy’s agent the most important question of the negotiating process: Is Brock Purdy a member of the KISS Army?
This will likely be the first of several Jock Blogs about Purdy and the future of the 49ers. Let’s be cruelly honest: with the season on the line, Purdy made a terrible decision and throw in his fourth-quarter interception. He was mostly bad on Thursday night, when the 49ers needed him. He’s had a mediocre season. Some of his stats are nice, but he appears to be at his best when Christian McCaffrey is in his huddle.
There is evidence that he is not a $65 million per annum QB.
So while we tote the 49ers 2024 season in a recycling bin to the curb for pickup, 2025 will bring its own share of issues — starting with the QB.