Is a QB who is "almost good enough." Because that brings risk of squandering the window.
Purdy is definitely better than Garoppolo was. He is focused and calm and intelligent. But I think his limitations on the passer side feed the weaknesses of Shanahan's scheme. With him at QB you need to drive the field ten yards at a time with underneath completions. Sure, he can hit an intermediate pass too. And he can hurt you when his underneath weapons bust a big gainer. But overall the threat he provides down the field is not enough to stretch a defense vertically.
So to beat them with Purdy you go with the tried and true "shut down that run game and contain the QB in the pocket" plan. And in the end the QBs who tend to lose when that happens are not good enough to win you titles. SF should have lost to Detroit, they just choked away a big lead and let them off the hook. Next year there will be a different group of teams with different strengths but there will certainly be defenses in the playoffs who can do that to SF's offense.
Which brings us back to the Rams and how thankful I am that McVay made the call to go get Stafford. And that we have an owner who made it happen.
