Brock Purdy achieves something not done by a 49ers QB since Joe Montana in 1989

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, who was once unanimously considered the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all time is as rarefied air as it gets for a San Francisco 49ers passer. In Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, current starting quarterback Brock Purdy played the best game of his two-season career by producing a perfect passer rating (158.3) in the 49ers’ 27-14 victory thanks to a box score of 333 passing yards and three passing touchdowns on 21 of 25 passing.

That performance made Purdy the first San Francisco quarterback, who threw a minimum of 15 passes in a game, to have a perfect passer rating since “Joe Cool” in Week 10 of the 1989 season when Montana threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns on 16 of 19 passing in a 43-3 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. That year, Montana went on to win the NFL MVP award and Super Bowl MVP award. This output also gives Purdy a 116.3 passer rating across his first 15 career starts, breaking the NFL all-time record previously set by reigning NFL and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes (112.4).

Highest passer rating in first 15 career starts
NFL history

Purdy also joined Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner in 1999 as only the second quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to average at least 11 yards per pass attempt in three consecutive games with a minimum of 20 pass attempts. Like Montana in 1989, Warner also won NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP honors in 1999. Pretty good company for the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.