“I think it’s always nice knowing you have Christian, obviously for checkdowns and stuff as a running back.”
SANTA CLARA — Christian McCaffrey is poised to make his season debut Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here’s what Brock Purdy said Thursday about the benefits of playing with McCaffrey courtesy of the 49ers p.r. department.
Q: What’s it been like just having RB Christian McCaffrey back on the field this week?
PURDY: “Yeah, it’s been awesome. Just what he brings to the table and really just firing everybody else up around. All of us coming off the Bye week and feeling good and fresh and then you get two-three next to you in the backfield, it’s been awesome. Looks great moving around and he’s trending in the right direction. So, we’re excited to see what happens.”
Q: You’ve played together a lot, but do you need a little extra time just in terms of some of the pass game stuff, getting back on the same page, getting timing? Do you do any of that this week?
PURDY: “Yeah, just in the pass game with, we do a lot of stuff where he makes a decision based off of the defender and just being on the same page and that kind of stuff. So it’s sinking back up into that kind of world. But obviously, he’s really smart and it’s been a pretty good transition so far.”
Q: Against a team that blitzes as much as they do, having Christian as the outlet, how does that maybe sort of change how you can attack the blitz?
PURDY: “I think it’s always nice knowing you have Christian, obviously for checkdowns and stuff as a running back. And then they have to account for him for sure and can open up other guys in the pass game. But more than anything, we have really good playmakers across the board and we’re going to try to get the ball into all our guys’ hands at the right time and the right situation. It’s always nice though, knowing that I can go through my read and come back down to Christian. But at the same time, they blitz and stuff, so we’re going to have to have him in pass protection, and our other running backs stepping up and doing their job as well. But that’s the name of the game. They’re going to pressure and try to get you off guard and off schedule and we’ve just got to be on top of our assignments.”
Q: You mentioned throwing a lot of man coverage at you, especially without Christian. How much do you think he maybe affects how teams prepare in that way?
PURDY: “In year’s past there’s usually been defensive schemes where they usually have to double Christian, have a guy play outside and a guy playing inside leverage and just double him. It’s obviously tough because you want to get him the ball, but then you hit other guys like George and [WR] Deebo [Samuel] and [WR Brandon Aiyuk] B.A. and [WR Jauan Jennings] J.J. So that’s been a thing, but at the same time, you never know. Going into each week it can be different and stuff. But that is the blessing of having really good players across the board and a guy like Christian in the backfield.”