REPORT: Can the 49ers Beat the Patriots without Brock Purdy?

Brock Purdy has been listed as day-to-day after the tough loss in LA. People are anticipating the end of Wednesday’s practice to see if he’s an active participant for Week 4. But if Brock Purdy can’t play, would it benefit this hurt Niners team?

Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) is stopped by Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Braden Fiske (55) and defensive tackle Kobie Turner (91) for a first down in the second half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

I understand how ludicrous this sounds, but hear me out first.

The 49ers are losing their strength every week. Last week they didn’t have Deebo Samuel or George Kittle on the offensive side of the ball, and they’ve seemingly lost Javon Hargrave for the rest of the season. Just to make things worse, Brock Purdy has gotten an MRI for his back and is day-to-day. With all these injuries, this team needs to start winning games now, but does Purdy’s injury help?

I know, Purdy had a pretty solid game on Sunday. He had some great completions to Jennings and had some receivers drop the ball *cough* RONNIE BELL *cough*, but some missed throws late sold the game. Even with those missed opportunities, there isn’t another quarterback on this team who is better at throwing the ball. But it could be time for Shanahan to switch up the playbook if Purdy is out, and one team’s playbook fits this team like a glove.

The standout team of the season has been the New Orleans Saints. Derek Carr has looked like an MVP-caliber player. Although he’s in the lower half in passing yards, he hasn’t needed to pass on the regular. They have led the league in Run Play Percentage (RPP) at 60.69% and are the lowest in Passing Play Percentage (PPP) at 39.31%. It may seem like an odd formula, but it’s clearly working and opens up their most important plays. The Saints calling card this season has been utilizing the run game as such a threat, that the deep ball gets open. Rashid Shaheed has been that deep ball threat, Chris Olave has been the safety net, and Alvin Kamara is the big weapon. It’s almost as if the Niners have very similar weapons.

The 49ers have been very close to the Saints RPP and PPP but not close enough. The Niners RPP is at 48.02%, 10th in the league, and PPP at 51.98%, 23rd in the league. The Niners are similar in running the ball more than most teams, but if Purdy is out why not be the top?

According to PFF, the Niners have higher blocking grades than the Saints. The Saints have a 52.1 Pass Blocking Grade and a 71.1 Run Blocking Grade. But the Niners are at 64.2 Pass Blocking Grade and 73.3 Run Blocking Grade. It’s almost as if they can run the scheme better than the Saints.

And in case that’s not enough, the 49ers have all the calling cards the Saints have, if not more. Brandon Aiyuk or Jauan Jennings can be that safety net or route runner to get easy yards when needed. Jordan Mason has shown that he is a starting running back on any team, and Jacob Cowing is a speedy deep-threat receiver. They have all the ingredients, so why not use the recipe?

At the end of the day, whether Brock plays or not this team needs to change in order to win. Either the formula needs to be better or it needs to change. And this seems like the best change possible. So we’ll see how the next few days pan out, and hopefully we can see this team start to click.