49ers' Colton McKivitz sends Brock Purdy warning to NFL after win over Bears

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy passed for three touchdowns and rushed for two scores to help his club earn a 42-38 win over the Chicago Bears that improved the 49ers to 12-4 on Sunday night and kept their hopes of securing the NFC's top playoff seed alive. 

Following the prime-time thriller, 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz explained why opposing defenses should be worried about what Purdy could accomplish through February 2026. 

49ers' Brock Purdy playing better than ever? 

"It's his best [football] right now,"  McKivitz said about Purdy, per ESPN's Nick Wagoner. "And it's when his best is needed. This is what this team needs is this offense to come in and score and score a lot. ... The way he's playing, it's awesome. To have a leader like that go and command the huddle and playing at that level, it's a great confidence builder for us."

Conversations from the fall about whether or not backup Mac Jones should remain in the San Francisco starting lineup after he went 5-3 across eight games that Purdy missed due to a toe injury now look downright silly. In the 49ers' Week 16 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, Purdy tossed five touchdown passes. Against the Bears, he completed 24-of-33 passes for 303 yards. Such numbers look even more impressive upon remembering that his first pass of the evening was intercepted and taken to the house for a touchdown. 

"Brock has been playing his a— off, made some huge plays in this game," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday's win. "Kept some drives alive with his legs, made some off-schedule plays, and he's an assassin out there ... he's playing as good as it gets right now."

49ers have "earned" massive Week 18 opportunity

The Niners will claim the division title, the NFC's No. 1 seed for the playoffs and home-field advantage through the postseason if they defeat the 13-3 Seattle Seahawks this coming Saturday night. Like that matchup, Super Bowl LX will be held at San Francisco's Levi's Stadium.

"We’ve earned this," Shanahan added during his postgame comments, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. "This is the game that we want. We love that it’s here. We love an opportunity to never leave here again this year, and we’ve got that opportunity Saturday night."

As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the 49ers as 1.5-point favorites over the Seahawks.