SANTA CLARA — Brock Purdy is running more, Kyler Murray is running less and it’s been beneficial for both the 49ers and Arizona Cardinals.
Purdy will never rush for 833 yards in a season as Murray did in 2020. Nor is Murray being asked to be Purdy. Yet each is ascending because their playing styles are adding the strengths possessed by the other while at the same time refining what they do best.
Through four games, Purdy has run the ball 18 times for 75 yards and eight first downs for the 49ers (2-2). Murray has 16 carries or 164 yards and seven first downs for the Cardinals (1-3) going in to Sunday’s game at Levi’s Stadium.
Purdy was was the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, an afterthought. Murray, by contrast, was the first pick of the 2019 draft out of Oklahoma. His passing and running skills were so abundant that the Cardinals and talent evaluators all over the league looked the other way despite a height (5-foot-10) that for decades was deemed insufficient to be an NFL quarterback, let alone the No. 1 overall selection.
The league has discovered only recently that Purdy can do damage with the play as called, but also when things go awry.
Listen to Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon it sounds as if Purdy has grown wings on his feet.
“He knows where to go with the ball, extends plays,” Gannon told reporters in Arizona. “It’s an overlooked part of his game. Sometimes he looks like Houdini back there. It’s tough to get him to the ground. He’s not one of those guys you talk about as a mobile quarterback. He’s very mobile. He makes a lot of plays with his feet.”
As for Murray, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan sees a quarterback in his second year in a system that is less scattershot and more dependent on fundamental execution. Murray spent the first nine games of last season rehabbing a torn ACL sustained in 2022, watching Joshua Dobbs, now a 49ers reserve, take the snaps before being traded to Minnesota.
“You could see he consciously tried to play within the confines of the offense, which was different to see,” Shanahan said. “And then when he isn’t playing in the confines of the offense, he can be the scariest guy in the league.”
The Cardinals are smarting after a 42-14 loss to Washington and rookie wunderkind quarterback Jayden Daniels. Murray ran the ball one time and gained three yards. Other than the game where he tore his ACL in 2022, Murray has only one other game in his career which he ran the ball just once.
“When I have one rush for three yards, I feel weird about it,” Murray told reporters in Arizona. “But that’s sometimes how the game plays. The defense is dictating where I go with the ball and you go through your reads.”
Middle linebacker Fred Warner, who the 49ers hope will be staring at Murray from his position at middle linebacker Sunday if sufficiently recovered from an ankle injury, has noticed the difference.
In a 41-10 win over the Rams in Week 2 — the team that beat the 49ers the following week — Murray was 17 of 21 for 266 yards and three touchdowns and ran five times for 59 yards.
“I think he’s the best he’s been,” Warner said. “Everybody saw that huge game he had against the Rams, some of the throws he was making. But I think the thing he’s developed over time is to stay in the pocket, play the position. At any moment he can play at an MVP level.”
When Purdy took over as the 49ers quarterback for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo in 2022, he executed the offense as drawn up and only late last season — especially in playoff wins over Green Bay and Detroit — began to exploit his ability to get away and make something out of nothing.
The inverse has been true for Murray, according to 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen.
“He’s still dynamic as anything, as far as being able to move, get outside the pocket, create,” Sorensen said. “But I think, you’re seeing him grow like any quarterback. He has the arm strength, he always has. He’s had the mobility, he always has. But seeing how he can work through his progression and make all those throws has improved.”
Defensive end Nick Bosa, who spent last week trying to bring down 235-pound New England quarterback Jacoby Brissett, acknowledged Murray is more like chasing a water bug than a tree stump.
“Sometimes he falls to avoid the hit, and in that sense he’s easier than Brissett,” Bosa said. “Catching him is the issue.”
Rather than look to run at the first opportunity, Murray, 27, is using that skill as an escape hatch when plays break down to either gain rushing yards or find a receiver downfield.
“When I’m running it just happens,” Murray said. “It’s not something I’m trying to force. It’s kind of the natural flow of the game. I enjoy being able to run if they give me the opportunity because it’s part of the game and part of what I’m able to do. But I’m playing the position, and when it happens, it happens.”
Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young, who was known to find open space on the run when necessary, saw Purdy break free for a pair of rushing first downs against New England wants to see more.
“He’s quick and he’s smart and as he extends plays and makes more happen outside of the play call,” Young said on his weekly appearance on KNBR-680. “I would love to see him start spitting out 40 yards per game. Especially the big games, those first downs and touchdowns can be hard to get.”
