San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel has spent quite a bit of time having to defend quarterback Brock Purdy this season, and that continued earlier this week.
On Monday, former NFL defensive back and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark threw a jab at Purdy, saying he truly did not belong in the MVP conversation at any point.
“I’m about to make a confession,” Clark said on ESPN First Take. “The single hardest thing I had to do this year was act like Brock Purdy deserved to be in the conversations with [Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson],” Clark said. “Because [Purdy] was playing extremely well and operating in that offense and distributing that ball to [George] Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, we had to continue to include him in conversations with Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen. Those things are not alike.”
Clark is hardly the only person in the media who feels this way, as many have labeled Purdy a glorified game manager.
Well, it didn’t take long for Samuel to respond.
“Never seen so much hate for a QB that lead the league in almost every category y’all folks be buggin frfr,” Samuel posted on his Instagram story. “That [tape] don’t tell no lies.”
Purdy went 23-for-39 with 252 yards and a touchdown in the 49ers’ Divisional Round playoff win over the Green Bay Packers this past weekend.
On the season overall, Purdy threw for 4,280 yards, 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 69.4 percent of his passes and posting a league-high passer rating of 113.
System quarterback or not, those are some pretty fine numbers, and it seems safe to say that Purdy absolutely deserved to be mentioned in MVP discussions. After all, he helped lead San Francisco to the No. 1 seed in the NFC in addition to posting those terrific stats.
Is he Mahomes or Jackson? No, but Purdy is proving that he is, at the very least, a very good quarterback who probably is worthy of more respect than he has been getting.
Thankfully, Brock Purdy has great teammates like Deebo Samuel who will stand up for him.
The Niners will battle the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game this Sunday.
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