The 49ers may be down their top two quarterbacks due to injury, but the greatest quarterback in the team's history believes that they will still be contenders.
Joe Montana expressed confidence that third-string quarterback Brock Purdy will perform well enough to help the 49ers continue winning.
And the four-time Super Bowl champion wouldn't rule out Purdy leading the 49ers to a championship.
"You know what, if he does what he did last week, yeah," Montana when asked if a Super Bowl title was still a possibility by USA TODAY Sports.
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Montana explained that it would be important for Purdy to just work within the 49ers' offense.
"As he becomes a starter at this point in time, he just has to not try to overthink things," Montana said. "Just go in and you don’t have to make plays. You’ve got guys on the outside that can make plays. So just relax."
If Purdy can do that, then Montana believes the rookie's success will be contingent on the 49ers doing one thing.
"Don’t put him in a bad position," Montana said, before adding. "Don’t put the young guy in a position where he has to feel like, 'Oh, I got to force one.' Let him punt the ball, especially early. Just get himself in a rhythm and that offense does that for you."
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Montana was adamant that the 49ers need to rely on their best playmakers to carry the offense. He specifically noted that Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle would need to step up and be the engine that drives that production.
He also pointed to the 49ers' strong defense as something that could help to take the pressure off Purdy.
"I mean, their defense is playing well," Montana said. "When you’ve got a good defense, you can make (up for) a lot of mistakes on offense and those guys have a tendency to make it up for you."
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That Montana believes in Purdy is a good sign for the 49ers. It seems that few are expecting a precipitous drop-off between Garoppolo and the rookie, though many are expecting Mr. Irrelevant to have some growing pains.
Still, Purdy winning the 49ers a Super Bowl is a tall ask. No rookie starting quarterback has ever won a Super Bowl in the previous 56 iterations of the game, so Purdy doing so would be historic.