Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Saturday, July 5th, 2025
“Obviously, Christian, Offensive Player of the Year, but it all goes hand in hand,” Armstead continued. “When I talked to the receivers, though, the major difference how Brock changed our team was receivers felt like they could get the ball on any play. It switched from, ‘Okay, I’m out of the progression. I’m just doing a run-off route,’ to, ‘Hey, I better run my best route regardless of the play because Purdy may just throw it to me, and feel like I’m better than the DB covering me, and give me an opportunity.’ And the receivers love that.
“And you could see how our offense took off that year. Of course, Christian was a big part of that in that running game … but Purdy’s ability to open up the offense, and make uncharacteristic off-schedule plays, and really open up the offense to if he felt like Aiyuk was maybe a little covered, but he just felt like Aiyuk was better than the guy, he was going to throw him the ball. And we hadn’t had that previous years.”