Brock Purdy has been unflappable since stepping into his first real NFL action back in Week 13. His poise on the field has been evident, but that starts during his weekly preparation. Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Thursday detailed how Purdy’s ability to stay even-keeled has even helped him get ready to be the team’s starter each week.
Shanahan has been complimentary of Purdy’s on-field play, but he was equally complimentary of the work the rookie signal caller has put in off the field.
“He’s been great,” Shanahan said. “He just tries to soak it in throughout the week. It’s always harder on Wednesdays when you get so much and you’re not going to get it right then and he doesn’t seem to over panic about it. He takes each rep, walk through, the meetings, every clip we show, you can just tell he is locked in and just building up information all the time and that’s what you want players and coaches to do.
“It’s never a final product on Wednesday, but you work your butt off throughout the week and usually by Saturday night it is pretty clear and that’s what he has shown. He’s been able to handle the pressure throughout the week because sometimes you want to go out there and look great for all your teammates, but you don’t always know that on Wednesday and Thursday and you just keep reviewing the tape, keep going through the looks and you make sure you’re there Saturday night so you can sleep comfortably and wake up extremely confident.”
Preparation and poise will be perhaps more important than ever for Purdy in Sunday’s NFC championship game. Philadelphia is perhaps the most hostile environment Purdy has walked in to, and they have the best defense he’s faced. He struggled against the Cowboys’ very good defense, and now he’ll need to quickly download and process everything he learned in that game to apply it Sunday.
If he can pull that off, he has a real chance to become the first rookie QB ever to start the Super Bowl.
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