The second week of training camp got off to a rough start for 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who had a total meltdown with seven interceptions over two days this week.
The rough patch for Purdy started Monday when he threw three picks in practice. As if things weren't bad enough, he followed that up Tuesday by throwing four more picks. By all accounts, Purdy actually played pretty well during the Tuesday practice, but then he closed things out by getting picked off four times in his final five attempts, which definitely isn't how you want to end practice.
Although quarterbacks never want to throw interceptions, Purdy didn't seem too concerned by his struggles. During an interview with KNBR in San Francisco, Purdy was asked about the interceptions and said he's throwing more picks because he likes to use practice as a time to "experiment."
"It's a fine line. You want to go out, you want to be efficient, you want to go through reads and obviously protect the ball and whatnot," Purdy said, via Niners Nation. "But, right now is the time for us to go out and -- you always hear the quarterback say experiment-- but that's really what it is."
Basically, Purdy likes to take more chances in practice to see what works, which means he'll try to throw the ball into tighter windows and he'll throw at guys he wouldn't normally throw at like 49ers linebacker Fred Warner.
"Can I fit it in this window on this hitch? Can I look off Fred or Flan [Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles] or De'Vondre [Campbell] in a certain way and then make that throw backside? You gotta try it out," Purdy said.
Mr. Irrelevant has only thrown 15 interceptions in 21 career starts, which is an average of just 0.7 per game, so he knows what it takes to protect the ball. Purdy might be melting down in training camp, but he pretty much guaranteed this won't be happening once the regular season starts.
"In the game and in the season, it comes down to protecting the ball every snap, every play. So you can't necessarily try those things out," Purdy said. "Right now, we can. My mindset right now is protect the ball, but let's be aggressive. Let's try this out. Let's figure it out."
It's possible that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan encourages his quarterbacks to take more risks in training camp. Back in 2019, Jimmy Garoppo famously had an August practice where he threw an interception on FIVE straight plays.
Although Garoppolo got grilled for his performance, it definitely didn't carry over to the regular season. Garoppolo ended up leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl, which is where Purdy would like to end up for the second straight year.
Once the season starts, Purdy plans to look as sharp as he ever has.
"Obviously, I want to go through my reads, check the ball down, and work on that as well because that's real, that's football," Purdy said. "But there's a time and a place where I'm like, 'Hey, you know what? This is practice, and I'm going to drop back and try this out.' And then you figure out if it could be a part of your game or not for the season."
If Purdy throws a total of seven interceptions in the 49ers' first two games of the season, then San Francisco may have a problem, but for now, 49ers fans probably shouldn't be too worried about their quarterback's meltdown earlier this week.
We actually made a list of some of the top overreactions from training camp his week and Purdy's run of interceptions made the list. You can check out all of our top overreactions here.