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By Matthew Davis
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There’s no doubt it’s a make-or-break year for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
He led them to the Super Bowl in his first full season as a starter but has only one playoff win since that 2023 season. San Francisco rewarded him with a $265 million deal, but the 49ers could look elsewhere after 2026 if there isn’t a good ROI with Purdy.
According to New York Post reporter Vincent Bonsignore, the 49ers have Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in mind. If that sounds like something concocted on Madden 27, it’s not.
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“Multiple league sources have indicated that San Francisco is a team to watch if Burrow serves the Bengals with divorce papers,” Bonsignore wrote. “For the same reasons (head coach) Kyle Shanahan and (general manager) John Lynch made an earnest run at Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in 2021, some believe they would not hesitate to do the same if Burrow is available.”
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As Bonsignore noted, Stafford had enough of the mediocrity with the Detroit Lions and got traded to the Los Angeles Rams, and Stafford won a Super Bowl with the team in 2021. Burrow led the Bengals to that Super Bowl, but Cincinnati has won only two playoff games since that season.
It’s possible Burrow’s patience with the Bengals will run out in 2026 if the team doesn’t at least make a significant playoff run. Couple that with an average or subpar year from Purdy, and the 49ers really could go for Burrow.
After all, Shanahan and Lynch are too familiar with what happened on missing out on Stafford. The 49ers, meanwhile, landed Trey Lance with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft after a trade-up, and the team was simply fortunate to find Purdy the following year with the last pick of the 2022 draft.
Lance turned out to be a draft bust, and Purdy became a star, but Purdy needs to keep building in 2026 if he doesn’t want to get replaced and possibly end up in Bengals stripes.
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