Post#156 » by Pattersonca65 » Tue Sep 19, 2023 5:51 pm
By Matt Barrows
Sep 16, 2023
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy has impressive thighs.
They’re not quite Nick Bosa– or Javon Hargrave-level gams, mind you, but they’ve certainly caught the attention of teammates, including noted quad connoisseur Bosa.
“I have noticed them. A hundred percent,” said the San Francisco 49ers defensive end, whose thighs look like century-old tree trunks. “There’s a lot of large human beings in this locker room. But Brock is definitely part of the quad club.”
Those big thighs have been a big deal in Purdy’s career.
Coming out of Iowa State, they may have been a little too powerful. Like most college athletes, Purdy spent a lot of time doing traditional lifts like bench press, barbell curls and squats — lots and lots of squats.
“The training I did was more about, how strong can I get?” Purdy said. “So I was up to like 218 (pounds) with muscle. And I was strong. But I was more blocky rather than elusive.”
The problem was that as his thighs became more muscular, they started to overpower his throws.
Purdy described it as being too “lunge-y.” His throwing coach, Will Hewlett, had a more technical term.
“He was what we would call a quad-dominant athlete,” said Hewlett, who began working with Purdy in the run-up to last year’s draft.
Hewlett explained that quad-dominant quarterbacks tend to throw from their toes, which meant that Purdy a) wasn’t able to fully harness the power he had in his lower body, and b) wasn’t as accurate as he could be.
“Because there’s overuse of your quads, you don’t use your hips well, if that makes sense,” Hewlett said earlier this year. “So you’re more into your knees more than you are your hips. And all great throwers use their hips as kind of the engine. And he wasn’t using his hips as an engine very much at all.”
One of Hewlett’s first tasks was altering the way Purdy stood when delivering the ball. He wanted the quarterback’s heel planted in the grass more firmly so he could engage his glutes and incorporate his hips more in the throw.
The results surprised Hewlett.
He said his pupils sometimes can add 1 or maybe even 2 mph to their throws over the course of an offseason. When Purdy properly planted his feet and took full advantage of the considerable torque available in his lower body, his maximum velocity leaped by nearly 5 mph to 55 1/2 mph. To put that in context, Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback known for his big arm, threw a then-record 59 mph pass at the 2011 NFL Scouting Combine.
“I do have strength in my lower half,” Purdy said. “I’m not a tall guy or anything, but I do have strength. So they got me firing with my hips, my back hips, and that allowed my arm to come through like a whip. And I got more strength and velocity and pop to my throws.”
“The single biggest improvement we had in Brock’s throw was the velocity increase,” Hewlett said. “And that’s what turned people’s heads. They were like, ‘Wow, this guy throws the ball harder — way harder — than he did coming out.’ I think it was almost a 5 mph increase in velocity, which is literally unheard of at his age.”
Hewlett noted that most NFL throws — even those from cannon-armed guys like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes — are in the high 40 mph range and that Purdy rarely will have to crank his velocity to 55 mph.
“It just gave him the ability to have better and more range in his intermediate throw game,” he said. “You don’t always need to use all of your horsepower. But having it is a confidence thing, too. Like, ‘I can rip it if I need to.’”
Once Brock Purdy learned to take advantage of the torque in his lower half, he added as much as 5 mph to his throwing velocity. (Charles LeClaire / USA Today)
Of course, thick, powerful thighs aren’t always a hindrance for the 49ers quarterback.
Just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers, who watched Purdy dart out of trouble twice in Week 1 and then downright embarrass them with a 17-yard burst up the middle in the fourth quarter. It was as if the quarterback hit a fast-forward button, and two Steelers were left swatting helplessly at his heels as he picked up a first down on the third-and-long carry.
Purdy, who says he’s now a more flexible 210 pounds, doesn’t have the size or athleticism Kyle Shanahan can build a game plan around. In fact, he broke a rib while running for a first down early in his initial start last season. But his wheels — especially his acceleration — are good enough for the occasional red zone surprise and certainly for broken-play scrambles.
“For me, I’m not always thinking, run, run, run,” Purdy said. “It’s, how can I dish it off to my playmakers for them to go get the yards? But in the right situation, if I see some green grass, ‘OK, let’s go.’ I feel like as I’ve played more and more, I’ve gotten a little bit better of a feel of it. I feel like at first I was a little tentative to scramble and whatnot. But as I’ve played (more), it’s like, ‘All right, the defense gives me 10 yards, let’s take it.’”
And maybe that’s why he’s been so effective on the move. No defense game plans for it like they would, say, Trey Lance. When Purdy runs, it’s a surprise. When he really hits the gas, it’s a big surprise.
The 49ers were a bit disappointed in Lance’s running ability. After watching him dominate with his legs at North Dakota State, they thought he could be an effective running quarterback early on while gaining valuable experience along the way.
Shanahan, however, soon realized Lance didn’t have the speed for the outside runs that were so effective when the coach called plays for Robert Griffin III in 2012. And Lance didn’t have the bulk or durability for running to the inside, which he did particularly often and well at North Dakota State.
It’s been the opposite experience when it comes to Purdy.
Based on his college film, Shanahan thought he’d be getting a small-bodied thrower. But when Purdy showed up, Shanahan changed his mind. Those bulky thighs that Bosa picked up on also caught the coach’s eye.
“I just remember the first day I got out and saw him in rookie camp, to walk up and see him for the first time in person, yeah, his height, that was accurate,” Shanahan told Sports Illustrated last month. “But to see his legs, to see his quads, he was built differently. He looked like a 215-pound guy. He wasn’t a small guy as much as I’d thought on tape.”
Purdy’s running, scrambling and buying time also have been better than expected. And for that, the quarterback can thank his Baby Bosa thighs.
“They’re not just for looks,” Bosa said with a smile.
