The contract song remains the same.
The agent supplies a number that puts the deal in the best possible light, with the biggest possible numbers. Reality arrives later.
For 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, his new contract — leaked at 5:00 p.m. ET on a Friday, where bad news usually goes to die — has a best-case number of $265 million over five years. That’s a new-money average of $53 million per year, tying him for seventh with Lions quarterback Jared Goff.
But it’s not a five-year extension that kicks in come 2026. His remaining contract, with $5.346 million in salary for 2025, gets torn up and replaced with a six-year, $279.346 million contract. That’s a per-year average from signing of $45.057 million.
Which seems more than fair for a middle-of-the-pack quarterback. And it’s OK to call him that. He’s not among the top five. It’s a stretch to put him in the top 10. For the last pick in the 2022 draft, there’s no shame in being roughly the 16th best quarterback in the entire NFL.
In time, we’ll know much more about the true value of the deal. The key factors are these: (1) signing bonus; (2) full guarantee at signing; and (3) cash flow over the first three years.
The structure of the deal also will show whether the 49ers are tied to the contract for one, two, or three years. (Teams rarely commit fully to more than three years of any non-rookie contract — except for the Browns.)
The whole truth will emerge, in time. And the general rule of thumb in these matters is that, the longer it takes, the less convenient the truth will be.
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