Kurtenbach: The 49ers are struggling to protect Brock Purdy. It’s a problem that could torpedo the season

If you’re wondering what the 49ers offense might look like once Brock Purdy is one of the highest-paid players in the NFL in years to come, you’ll likely get a sneak preview on Sunday.

The Niners will perhaps be without arguably their three most important offensive weapons, sidelined stars Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and perhaps tight end George Kittle, who missed Thursday’s practice with a hamstring injury.

Among the Niners’ first-string offensive weapons, Purdy might only have two — Brandon Aiyuk and fullback Kyle Jusczyzk — against the Rams.

“It sucks not having your guys,” Purdy said Thursday. “We’ve got a really good scheme, a good playcaller… I still have to do my job with my reads and progressions more so than I need to change the way I think.”

Still, it’s a tough gig for the soon-to-be $60 million-per-year quarterback. Not that anyone is taking pity on him.

But the task will be near-impossible if the 49ers’ offensive line doesn’t significantly improve in protecting the Niners’ quarterback.

Last week against the Vikings, Purdy was sacked six times. Not all of those sacks were the byproduct of bad offensive line play, but the amount of pressure Minnesota was allowed to create on No. 13 cannot be ignored. Purdy was knocked off of his reads and progressions in large part because he was consistently surrounded by purple jerseys in Minnesota.

“We gotta do a better job up front,” offensive line coach Chris Foerster said Thursday. “No excuses… We weren’t sharp overall in the passing game.”

“I’m glad it happened in Week 2, not Week 12.”

But to keep Purdy upright, the 49ers’ offensive linemen need to stay upright themselves.

There’s no such thing as perfect offensive line play, and deference needs to be given to the big boys up front from the media and fans, as we are not privy to all the nuances of plays — the protection calls, chief amongst them.

But while injured Niners guard Jon Feliciano took a break on Wednesday from sharing conspiracy theories on Twitter, and posting “When I retire [I’m going to] start doing videos dogging the internet content dudes that think they understand [offensive line] play,” the fact remains there’s no protection plan that includes offensive linemen sitting on the ground.

Even a never-was former tackle like me (I sat down more than a few times) knows that.

In back-to-back games, we’ve seen Niners center Jake Brendel be pushed onto his keister in one-on-one pass protection reps.

We’ve seen right tackle Colton McKivitz be spun to the ground, too.

Even the great Trent Williams is spending time on the floor.

The Brandin Podziemski plan of hitting the deck doesn’t translate to football. And paired with the at-times evident confusion of guards Aaron Banks and Dom Puni, it’s no surprise the Niners have the No. 17 ranked pass-blocking grade with Pro Football Focus appears generous. In all, the site has charted 27 pressures against the Niners in two games.

On those pressures, Purdy has completed 10-19 passes for 117 yards, another middle-of-the-pack number.

Brendel has the worst pass-blocking grade in the league after two contests, posting a 29.5 out of 100. The next-closest player — Rams rookie center Beaux Limmer — is at 40.8.

This season, PFF has marked down Brendel as taking 40 true, unquestioned pass-protection snaps. PFF’s numbers might require a few grains of salt, but they’ve deduced he’s won only four of those 40 reps.

Four-of-40!

To imagine that’s ok would require a kidney-busting amount of sodium.

The Niners put a lot on their center — he’s setting the protections at the line of scrimmage, making him the second “quarterback” on the field. Brendel, by all accounts, is excellent at those sorts of things.

He’s also a strong run blocker, and the 49ers’ offensive line is built to be run-first.

But four out of 40 is untenable. Allowing that kind of pressure up the middle puts Purdy in near-constant peril.

“He had a better game than he did the first game,” Foerster said of Brendel. “I think some of the bad plays stood out.”

Well, there’s your leader in the clubhouse for understatement of the week.

Still, the Niners aren’t making a move at the position anytime soon. Foerster went into why, claiming that when it comes to “Quickness, intelligence, experience, one-on-one pass blocking ability, ability to finish in the run game on the second level, his ability to snap off on double teams… “He’s better than [Ben] Bartch, [Nick] Zakelj, he’s better than [Drake] Nugent.”

“Maybe some of these issues will stick around,” Foerster said. “Maybe they won’t. We’ll have to see.”

How long can the Niners afford to roll the dice? Brendel has been solid for the Niners the past few seasons, but his anchoring in pass protection — always suspect — has become a downright liability. The center was frequently rolling shotgun snaps in training camp, ostensibly because he was rushing to get into his set. He’s rightly decided to prioritize the snap since the season started, but the results have been undeniable and, frankly, indefensible.

Without McCaffrey, Samuel, and perhaps Kittle, the Niners’ game plan will be a whole lot simpler against the Rams. And simple can absolutely work.

But with the spotlight not shining on those star players, it has to go somewhere. Brandon Aiyuk will need to step up. Purdy will need to elevate his play and the play of the players around him, too.

And the offensive line will need to be much, much better for any of this to work.