Despite a truncated rookie season on track to feature just six starts, Brock Purdy has a chance to lift himself into the 49ers rookie history books.
With three more touchdown passes in the final two weeks, he would set a new franchise record for touchdown passes by a rookie QB. Three more would put him at 11 on the season, eclipsing the 10 Tom Owen tossed in 10 games during his rookie campaign in 1974.
Things get a little trickier if we expand our definition of “rookie.” The 49ers place Tom Owen’s 10 as the franchise’s rookie record for TD passes, but another first-year NFL QB passed that number in a 49ers uniforms. Jeff Garcia had 11 TD passes in 1999 – his first NFL season.
Garcia technically wasn’t a rookie though since he became a pro in 1994 with the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders. He made his way to the NFL in 1999 where he started 10 of the 13 games he played for San Francisco and tossed 11 TDs.
Frankie Albert had 14 TD passes in 1946, but he was a draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1942. Nick Mullens in 2018 posted 13 TDs, but he was an undrafted rookie in 2017.
Technicalities aside, Purdy is having one of the most successful seasons a first-year QB has ever had for the 49ers, and his continued success will determine whether he can become the first rookie QB for any team to start a Super Bowl.
