Brock Purdys big achievement: 49ers pass catchers have a chance to make history

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Entering Sunday, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel had led the San Francisco 49ers in receiving yards in four games each, and for a while it was hard to tell who’d take the lead in that category in the team’s 13th game.

There was Samuel with a 54-yard catch in the second quarter, a touchdown strike that seemed to jolt the San Francisco 49ers from an early-game malaise. There was Aiyuk with a 45-yarder down the left sideline in the third quarter that helped set up another touchdown. Aiyuk averaged 21 yards a catch, boosting his already-gaudy season average. Finally, there was Kittle with a 44-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter and a 27-yard gain late that drove the final nail in the Seattle Seahawks’ 28-16 defeat.

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For the record, Samuel emerged as the receiving leader Sunday with 149 yards, the second straight week he has surpassed 100 yards. He seems to be steadily growing in strength and speed since missing three games with a shoulder injury at midseason. Aiyuk finished with 126 yards and Kittle with 76 yards.

49ers’ week-by-week receiving leader:
1. Aiyuk 129 yards
2. Samuel 63
3. Samuel 129
4, Aiyuk 148
5. Kittle 67
6. Aiyuk 76
7. Kittle 78
8. Kittle 149
10. Kittle 116
11. Aiyuk 156
12. Samuel 79
13. Samuel 116

Tally: Aiyuk 4, Kittle 4, Samuel 4

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) December 7, 2023

But if the season-long pattern holds, it will be someone different over the remaining four weeks. That balance, of course, is a reflection of coach Kyle Shanahan, whose play calling was especially sharp last week in Philadelphia and whose offense racked up a season-high 527 yards Sunday, and of quarterback Brock Purdy, who finished with a career-best 368 yards against the Seahawks.

The 49ers quarterback has been lauded for his accuracy — he completed at least 70 percent of his passes for the ninth time this season Sunday — and for leading the league in passer rating.

Another notable achievement is his distribution: Aiyuk topped 1,000 yards Sunday for the second straight season (he’s at 1,053 yards), and Kittle (811 yards) and Samuel (739 yards) have a chance of joining him in the 1,000-yard club. How rare would that be? As prolific as Joe Montana and Steve Young were in San Francisco, no 49ers team has had three 1,000-yard receivers in one season. The 49ers have had only three seasons in which two players have hit the 1,000-yard mark: 1989 (Jerry Rice and John Taylor), 1991 (Rice and Taylor) and 1998 (Rice and Terrell Owens).

Left tackle Trent Williams said he usually misses the 49ers’ big, downfield throws because he’s locked up with a defensive lineman. In the second quarter, however, he saw Samuel get a step on safety Jamal Adams in the middle of the field.

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“I was watching that the whole time, seeing him running wide open,” Williams said. “And I’m like, ‘I know that ball’s coming.’ It’s fun. It’s a good group of guys, and I think this offense has a group of guys who are really walking explosive plays. … All you gotta do is get the ball in their hands.”

🤫 @19problemz#SEAvsSF on FOX #ProBowlVote 🗳 https://t.co/bosbZYCB7K pic.twitter.com/QDRZVsTxyJ

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 10, 2023

Samuel, meanwhile, wasn’t the first option on the play. The offensive line, however, gave Purdy an unusually long time to throw. He said he noticed Adams was “sort of flat-footed” and knew Samuel would get past him.

“I was like, ‘We can get over the top here,’” Purdy said. “And so, I took my drop. He wasn’t necessarily the No. 1 guy in the read. It was actually Jauan (Jennings). But the way Jamal Adams came down, I was like, ‘This could be a big one.’ So (I) let it rip and let Deebo get under it.”

Said Samuel: “Whenever he sees something, he’s just gonna let it go. And you could see — I really wasn’t running 100 mph. But once I looked back and saw him getting ready to throw it, I knew I had to speed up.”

The play was representative of Purdy’s aggressive mindset and of how the 49ers beat the Seahawks on Sunday. In the past, Shanahan has preferred to grind away at opponents with his running game, with San Francisco attempting 40 or more runs in some contests.

In this one, they ran the ball just 23 times, and none of their drives lasted more than seven plays. Instead, they had five plays of 30 yards or more. That includes Christian McCaffrey’s 72-yard run off the left side of the line on the first snap. The other four were throws by Purdy. He was already averaging 9.6 yards per attempt entering Sunday’s game, the highest in the NFL by a yard. He averaged 13.6 yards against the Seahawks and was particularly precise on passes that went 15 or more yards in the air. On those, he was 6-of-6 for 225 yards and two touchdowns.

🃏 @gkittle46#SEAvsSF on FOX #ProBowlVote 🗳 https://t.co/bosbZYD8Xi pic.twitter.com/ewRhrvHdSC

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 10, 2023

“I love watching Brock,” Williams said. “I love watching him get in his zone after a big play. You just see his confidence oozing. And then (he) cuts that off and he’s right back in the huddle and it’s like none of that ever happened. He’s so locked in and such a good quarterback.”

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And though Purdy’s fondness for the deep ball this season makes for some showy statistics, the 49ers’ offensive players noted there are also more practical effects. The throws give defenses, already off-balance because of the 49ers’ array of weapons, more to think about.

“I think it makes us way more dangerous,” Samuel said. “Because I feel like you can’t just cover the in-breaking routes like they normally do anymore. You’ve got to cover the whole field.”

Kittle noted the threat of the deep ball ought to open the running game even more.

“The linebackers have to drop a little bit more — a little deeper — to help out, the safeties have to play a little deeper,” he said. “And all of a sudden it’s, ‘Good luck, there’s Christian McCaffrey running outside zone right down your face.’”

GO DEEPER

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(Photo of Deebo Samuel: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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