George Kittle Says Brock Purdy is Worth the Money the 49ers Pay Him

When the 49ers gave Brock Purdy a five-year, $265 million contract extension this offseason, some people scoffed at the deal.

That's $53 million per season on average for a quarterback who doesn't carry his offense. He's not even a top-five player on his own team. And he's coming off a down season in which he missed the playoffs and the Pro Bowl.

On top of all that, Purdy's massive extension forced the 49ers to part ways with nine starting players and replace them all with rookies and cheap journeymen. So when George Kittle went on The Rich Eisen Show this week, he addressed the criticisms of Purdy's contract.

"I don't know what his winning percentage is, but when you win a lot of games and you only need two years to go to the NFC championship or better, I think that's decent," Kittle said. "One of my favorite things that I've heard is everyone calls him a checkdown merchant. And then, the last two years, he's had the least amount of checkdowns as a starting quarterback. So I think he's doing pretty well."

Purdy is doing well. Unfortunately, he's not doing much better than his predecessor, Jimmy Garoppolo, despite being a better quarterback than him. In 36 career starts, Purdy's winning percentage is .639. In Garoppolo's 55 career starts with the 49ers, his winning percentage was .691. Somehow, the 49ers won more frequently with a quarterback who supposedly is vastly inferior.

For all of Garoppolo's limitations, he also went to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl. And he wasn't worth the money the 49ers paid him. Not even close. And Purdy is getting paid much, much more.

What could go wrong?