Brock Purdy signed a four-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 2022 that turned out to be one of the biggest bargains in the league today.
Because Purdy, 24, was drafted with the last pick in the seventh round of the NFL draft in 2022, he’s locked into a lower yearly salary for his first four years in the league. Typically seventh-round picks struggle to stay in the NFL for multiple seasons, and rarely become an MVP candidate like Purdy. In the preseason, Purdy outperformed Trey Lance, who was drafted No. 3 in the 2022 draft, and Purdy has been the starter all year.
That makes Purdy the starting quarterback of the No. 1 NFC seed in the NFL playoffs. He is third among all quarterbacks in the NFL this season in touchdowns thrown — 31 — and fifth in yards thrown — 4,280.
But he will make just $870,000 in salary from his team this season, much less than his playoff QB rivals at other teams. For example, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes will make $44.5 million this season, Bills QB Josh Allen will make $28 million, and even rookie C.J. Stroud will make $24 million. And his teammate Lance, who is his backup? He is on a four-year, $34 million deal with the team.
Even more surprising? Purdy’s salary pays him less than what 16 college football players made this season, according to On3’s proprietary NIL algorithm, which is based on NIL-deal data, performance, influence and exposure.
The top five of that list includes the University of Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders ($4.7 million), Texas’ Arch Manning ($2.8 million), Colorado’s Travis Hunter ($2.3 million), Texas’ Quinn Ewers ($1.7 million) and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe ($1.5 million).
The NCAA began allowing college athletes to earn name, image and likeness (NIL) money in 2021, when student-athletes won a decades-long argument over the fairness of receiving no remuneration even as the games they played in generated millions of dollars for the institutions in which they were enrolled.
See also: These college athletes are making over $1 million a year from NIL
NIL deals for college athletes can come from collectives to lure presumptive students to come to a university, but they also can come from off-field endorsements deals.
In addition to his salary, Purdy makes money from off-field endorsements with brands including Alaska Airlines, Toyota and Buffalo Wild Wings, but terms of those deals have not been made public.
He has an average annual contract value of $934,253, which is 89th among all NFL quarterbacks, according to Spotrac.
In October 2023, Purdy told TODAY that he still had a roommate, “one of the offensive lineman,” and “I still drive my Toyota Sequoia,” while living in one of the most highly taxed states in the country in California.
The 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s divisional playoff round on Saturday 24-21.
Read on: Did NIL play a part in Alabama coach Nick Saban’s shock retirement?