Brock Purdy gives extremely encouraging description of his connection with 49ers’ first-round pick
Brock Purdy spent the week of joint practices between the 49ers and Raiders dissecting the Las Vegas defense with the help of first-round pick Ricky Pearsall. In his only series against the same opposition in Saturday’s preseason game, Purdy leaned on Pearsall to move the ball effectively down the field.
Purdy connected with Pearsall for four of his five completions, the highlight of his lone series being a 21-yard connection on third-and-18 that kept the drive alive.
Brandon Aiyuk is unlikely to return until closer to the middle of the regular season and Jauan Jennings and Jordan Watkins are nursing injuries, while Demarcus Robinson faces potential league discipline. As such, Pearsall hitting the ground running after a rookie year heavily impacted by the injuries he suffered in a shooting last August figures to be crucial to the early-season fortunes of the offense.
Pearsall came on strong towards the end of his rookie season, and his recent performances in practice and against the Raiders have indicated his rapport with Purdy has only grown stronger.
And, after the win at Allegiant Stadium, Purdy gave an encouraging assessment of his understanding with Pearsall.
Purdy said of his efforts to get on the same page with Pearsall:
“Yeah, I thought it was just open communication. 24/7 like I said before, after reps and practice, Ricky comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, man, I ran this route because I got this look or this leverage, and this is what I was trying to do.’ And then I’ll tell him, like, ‘Hey, I need you here,’ or ‘That was good. Keep working on that, I’ll get back to you after I watch the film.’ We’re just always talking, and he loves football, I love football, and so we got two guys that are willing to put in the extra work and explain what we’re trying to get out of the play and reps, I think great things can happen from that. We watch a lot of stuff from last year too, and understand where we both need to be better when, obviously I’m throwing them, and I think we honed in on some things this year in camp and the game. We just go out there, and I feel like it’s pretty natural, just both of us, our chemistry and everything so. It was one preseason game, so we just got to keep, keep doing it and keep our heads down and keep working hard together.”
Since becoming the 49ers’ quarterback, Purdy has done an excellent job of building connections with pass-catchers that look natural, with Aiyuk, George Kittle and Jennings all enjoying that kind of mind meld with him.
To hear Purdy use the word natural to describe his understanding with Pearsall is, therefore, very exciting. They are comments that point to Pearsall realizing his potential and becoming a very reliable weapon for Purdy in 2025.
Intriguingly, Purdy believes there is still plenty of room for their connection to become even more effective.
He said of Pearsall’s display against Las Vegas:
“It was awesome, to be able to go live against another defense in a game situation. Obviously we have him in our playbooks to hit him on certain things, but the defense obviously has to give us the right looks for that stuff. I thought he did a great job overall, just giving him the ball in some space and certain routes. All the routes that we threw to him were a little different. It was cool seeing him being able to work each one differently, and each route was different based off of coverage, and the look. I thought it was great work for both of us to get in some live action and to be able to connect on that in the heat of the moment, which is awesome. We’re going to continue to build and get better together. I definitely thought it was great just working with him, his off season, in camp, and then finally going out in a game situation and seeing the results, which was awesome.”
There were eyebrows raised when the 49ers selected Pearsall 31st overall. Yet, with Deebo Samuel’s departure and the injury issues the 49ers have at wideout, that pick is looking increasingly prescient. If Purdy’s words are reflected by tangible results in the regular season, the questions around his selection will disappear.
