SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- For San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and linebacker Fred Warner, training camp has become an annual battleground. It isn't just about offense versus defense; it's how they can, individually, win the day against each other.
For Purdy specifically, those chess matches are vital because the middle of the field is fertile but dangerous ground in coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. It requires Purdy to layer the ball to his pass catchers between multiple defenders, the type of precision best achieved through repetition against the best middle linebacker in the game. And he has gotten good enough at it that he can even leave Warner grasping at air.
Early in the 49ers' 16th training camp practice this August, he completed a pass over Warner's outstretched arms to wideout Mike Evans for a big gain. But later, Warner broke up similar over-the-middle attempts to wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and running back Kaelon Black. Warner turned and boisterously let Purdy hear about it after both.
As the practice neared its end, Purdy dropped back and saw Warner sink into coverage. Purdy fired it just past Warner's fingertips and into Deebo Samuel Sr.'s waiting hands. Then, Purdy let it fly toward Warner again -- verbally. A loud "F--- you, Fred" echoed across the field. Moments later, Warner and Purdy stood behind the huddle laughing, and they later acknowledged how such intense practice moments push the other to be better.
"The 'Layer King' has some really intensive intensity, and I like that about him," 49ers defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said in August. "When he does those things, it just makes the team go."
The art of layering isn't just about a deft touch; it's an act of calculated audacity against defensive geometry, requiring Purdy to get the ball over sinking linebackers and in front of hard-charging defensive backs. His mastery of those throws -- and when to deploy them -- helps explain why he has played like a league MVP this season. Through the first five weeks, Purdy led the league in QBR (85.5) and touchdown passes (13).
To understand how he has reached that level, Purdy recently walked ESPN through film of some of his finest layered throws. Teammates, coaches and a Hall of Fame quarterback offered additional insight into what makes it work.
"Most people don't understand the degree of difficulty in that offense of those throws," said Kurt Warner, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. "It's so hard not only to do it once but to be in an offense that asks you to do that over and over and over again. It's one of the things that continually impresses me about Brock is the understanding of when and how to make those throws."
SITTING IN AN office in the bowels of Levi's Stadium in late August, Purdy rewatches some film and talks through his pre-snap checklist: the route concept, protection, timing and defensive coverage.
"There's a timing to it," Purdy said. "It's not just, 'Hey, drop back and take a couple hitches and if it's there, lob it.' ... This kind of ball is like you're throwing over a guy, but it needs to be just strong enough and just enough touch to get there before the safety hits him."
Because those layered throws require flawless timing, Purdy must access a mental Rolodex about his likely receiver and the defenders on the field. On each snap, he notes his receiver's speed, height and how he comes out of breaks. He then analyzes the defense, factoring in intricate details like the wingspan of the linebacker sinking into coverage and the short-area speed of the safety lurking over the top.
The goal is to drop the pass over the linebacker but in a spot where the receiver can run after the catch or, at least, avoid a punishing hit from the secondary.
"I think it's definitely one of the hardest throws on the field," Purdy said. "Those are things that I sort of prided myself on young. ... Now in the NFL, I'm trying to take it to another level."
In some ways, the layered throw comes naturally to Purdy because he lacks the height and powerful arm of other quarterbacks. It's why he said he spends a lot of time studying Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, who is 6 feet tall.
Purdy pays attention to how Brees manipulated defenders with his eyes to create throwing lanes, threw balls long before receivers broke and maneuvered in the pocket. To Purdy, Brees' tape is proof of the mental work required to succeed when you aren't the biggest at the position. More often than not, Purdy said he makes those throws without even seeing his intended target when he lets the ball go.
"I'm not the Josh Allen- or Joe Burrow-type quarterbacks where they're really big and you'd think they could [see the whole field better]," said the 6-foot-1 Purdy. "But I have to take everything into account. ... That's why I'm huge on like, 'This receiver's taking eight steps and he's breaking to daylight on this coverage. I know this hole's going to be there.' And taking those kinds of things into factor because I can't always see."
That behind-the-scenes work extends beyond the Niners' facility. Whether at home in Nashville, Tennessee, or training in Florida, Purdy spends a little time each day of the offseason working on vision training. Equipped with an iPad and 3D glasses, he watches two squares move in, out and around. His job is to identify how and when those squares converge and diverge with his eyes moving in and out rapidly.
Purdy also does daily work with saccades, a rapid eye movement exercise in which he must follow arrows that pop up all over a screen and touch the correct one when prompted. According to Purdy, the goal of the two-to-four-minute sessions is to force him to process movement and information as fast as possible while improving his depth perception.
"All those things help me just work on my eyesight, my eyes moving, being quick with my eyes, making quick decisions," Purdy said. "And then it records my decision-making, how fast, the percentage of getting right and wrong. I do think it helps."
Since taking over as San Francisco's starter in 2022, Purdy ranks among the NFL's elite between the hashmarks. Among quarterbacks with at least 30 starts in that span, he's fourth in the NFL in attempts (224) and completions (163), second in passing yards (2,389) and yards per attempt (10.7) and tied for third in touchdown passes (16).
On throws between the hashes with a tight window (where the receiver has less than a yard of separation at the time the ball arrives), Purdy is fourth in completions (15), third in passing yards (215) and seventh in attempts (34). He is first in the NFL in passing yards and tied for second in completions on such throws since the start of the 2025 season.
Purdy credits much of that improvement to Shanahan, quarterbacks coach Mick Lombardi and offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak. The Niners have one route called "skid," where the receiver takes eight steps at a 45-degree angle coming out of his break. For optimal timing, Purdy's objective on that route is to throw the ball 20 yards downfield and 2 yards outside the hashmarks after taking a five-step drop with one hitch.
"I never would have broken it down like that in high school or college," Purdy said. "But being here with Kyle, there's a detail to it. This is where it should be. It's just rep after rep watching film with Kyle and trusting how he's coaching me."
That meticulous film study has translated to the field. With 5:38 left in the second quarter of the Niners' wild-card playoff win over the Eagles in January, Shanahan called a play with four players running "skid" routes. Purdy easily recalled the details while walking through the film. He quickly identified Eagles safety Marcus Epps rotating to tight end Jake Tonges. When running back Christian McCaffrey motioned across the formation, linebacker Nakobe Dean followed, leaving safety Reed Blankenship as the lone deep safety on the backside.
Purdy glanced toward Tonges, but he already planned to come off it and throw to Jauan Jennings on a deeper route or Robinson underneath. In a split second, Purdy noted Blankenship playing 16 yards deep and saw slot cornerback Cooper DeJean allowing Jennings an inside release. The only remaining question: Could linebacker Zack Baun sink deep enough to take away the passing lane to Jennings?
While reviewing the play, Purdy lamented taking an extra, smaller hitch after his first one. Ultimately, it didn't matter. He ripped it over Baun into an open window between DeJean and Blankenship. Jennings caught it in stride and raced up the right sideline for a 45-yard gain.
It took Purdy 2.63 seconds to release the ball to Jennings, who had 1.2 yards of separation at the time of the throw but 2.8 yards when the pass arrived, per NFL Next Gen Stats. This is what coaches mean when they talk about "throwing the receiver open."
"That's the throw that everyone's talking about," Purdy said. "Raheem and everybody -- it's that."
On tape, the pass is football poetry. In practice, it sometimes looks like a turnover. Working in the razor-thin margins over the middle means playing a game of chicken with NFL defenders.
It's why Purdy and his coaches view practice interceptions as essential research and development rather than costly mistakes. Purdy says he wants to be smart with the ball, but he also knows that without testing boundaries in practice, he won't have the confidence to make those throws in games.
The practice picks offer another bonus: the chance to refine his short memory. That showed up in last week's win over Seattle. Purdy was 10-of-11 for 109 yards and a touchdown (with a 2-point conversion) after a third-quarter interception.
"That's one of Brock's great strengths is he's able to do that and flush the bad and the good and focus on where his feet are right now," Lombardi said.
AFTER MORRIS DUBBED Purdy the "Layer King" in training camp, Lombardi went to Morris the next day and good-naturedly protested the moniker. It's not that Lombardi doesn't believe in the importance of layering so much as he doesn't want Purdy to lose sight of the diverse throws their offense requires.
Although he concedes that "The Appropriate Throw King" isn't as catchy, he wants Purdy to be just as willing to drive the ball down the field as he is to loft one between defenders.
"It's common to layer it over a guy, but sometimes you have to drive it," Lombardi said. "There are different things that go into all different types of throws. But I think Brock knows when to push it."
It's that ability to correctly identify the requisite throw that Kurt Warner believes is Purdy's true superpower. Like the 2022 draft's Mr. Irrelevant, Warner built his career from the ground up as an undrafted free agent without elite physical tools. He also spent most of his career dicing up defenses over the middle.
To master spatial awareness and body language, Warner played racquetball in the offseason. The fast-paced geometry helped train his eyes to read body language and anticipate movement and angles.
In watching Purdy this season, Warner sees a quarterback completely comfortable in the system and assured of his place leading it.
"What separates really good quarterbacks is how many of those little things you can do," Warner said. "That's the stuff that a lot of people don't know how to get better at."
Coincidentally, Morris has played a pivotal role in helping Purdy expand his throwing diversity. Morris asks his defensive backs to implement more man match -- a coverage that combines man-to-man coverage responsibilities with zone drop and handoff principles. That style of coverage allows defenders to be more aggressive and, as Purdy points out, creates tighter windows for him to attack.
The result was more opportunities to try varied throws, including some of the fastballs over the middle that have shown up in games this season.
"It felt like everything for me had to be on time and it had to be aggressive," Purdy said. "I don't know if there was as many layered kind of throws, just because of how they run things. ... And I appreciated that, actually. I think that's translated into the season for me to throw with that ... aggressive mindset."
With five more pass attempts, Purdy will reach 1,500 for his career and become the NFL's all-time leader in passer rating among qualified quarterbacks. Four more starts will also make him the longest-tenured starting quarterback of the Shanahan era, surpassing Jimmy Garoppolo's 61 (regular or postseason) starts in San Francisco.
Although Purdy says he has emphasized trying to throw more "violently" this year, he hasn't used a radar gun to track velocity. Still, the ball at least appears to be jumping out of his hand because he trusts exactly what he sees.
"I think he's been comfortable with the offense since the beginning, but just the more you play, the more you see," Shanahan said. "I think Brock learns from every life experience he's in and that just makes him better as a player and better as a man as he gets older."
Inside the 49ers' facility, teammates and coaches reject the notion that Purdy has massively evolved. Shanahan, McCaffrey, tight end George Kittle and others insist he has performed like an elite point guard since his first start in 2022.
There's some truth to that, but Purdy's obsession with treating minor details like major factors has unlocked an even higher ceiling.
"The essence of playing quarterback is the ability to understand when a throw needs to go out and how it needs to be thrown and what I have to do to make this particular throw in this particular situation," Warner said. "It's an art form to be able to have that anticipation.
"That's who Brock Purdy is in a nutshell. ... He always finds a way to get it done."
