San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy has seen his fantasy football point total increase in back-to-back-to-back games as the Niners establish themselves as the class of the league. Over the past two weeks, he has accounted for six touchdowns and eight incompletions. Should managers view him as a league-winner they can bank on or an asset whose value is as high as it’ll get?
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The Case To Trade Away Brock Purdy
For the record, I believe Purdy is a viable option that can help you the rest of the way. That said, if you can cash in this chip in a buy-low sort of deal, there probably won’t be a better time to do it.
In the short term, he travels to Cleveland to face a ferocious Browns defense that has the potential to hold him in check. If that happens, Purdy’s trade stock drops heading into a matchup with Minnesota. If he lights up Minnesota as you’d expect, his value can only recover so much because he is then approaching his bye week. You get the idea — if you want to move on, you have six days to do so.
Brock Purdy threw all 4 of his TD passes from outside the tackle box, the most in a game in the NGS era.
Purdy completed 7 of 10 passes over 10 air yards for 166 yards & 3 TD. He leads the NFL in completion percentage (72.1%) on such passes this season.
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— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 9, 2023
Everything is clicking in San Francisco now. Purdy’s quartet of star players (Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and George Kittle) have missed a total of one game, thus allowing him to spread the ball around and keep defenses guessing.
It shouldn’t be surprising that he is producing at this level with all of these options healthy; I’m just not willing to bet on that level of health sustaining as the season wears on.
In addition to the health of his teammates, his efficiency against the Cowboys was something that we don’t expect to continue. He threw four touchdown passes on 24 attempts — he entered the game having thrown four on his previous 109 attempts.
He also has yet to show the ability to give us consistent production with his legs, making his two rushing scores this season something we can’t expect to be bailed out with in the future.
I’ll admit that the anti-Purdy case isn’t too strong, but what is the upside case in terms of the ranks? In an absolute best-case scenario, QB12 is the spot for him. Don’t believe me? Who are you removing from this list?
1. Jalen Hurts
2. Patrick Mahomes
3. Josh Allen
4. Lamar Jackson
5. Justin Herbert
6. Anthony Richardson (when healthy)
7. Tua Tagovailoa
8. Trevor Lawrence
9. Kirk Cousins
10. Joe Burrow
11. Justin Fields
Taking a step back like that and evaluating the QB landscape as a whole is a good exercise to do on occasion. With this list in front of you, how many of these QBs do you think you could acquire — potentially with another small piece — for Purdy?
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Maybe you could get Trevor Lawrence? Joe Burrow could still be an option, even after a big game. What about Justin Fields, a risky player with a much greater range of outcomes? Again, you don’t have to move on from Purdy, but if you want to, the clock is ticking.