i agree with you that paying guys doesn't always work out but I don't also don't see guys who are good fits to a system and playing well taking mid level QB salaries very often. Baker being the exception.

I am sure if the 49ers had a crystal ball and knew Mac Jones would look like first year pro bowler Mac Jones the calculus might have been different but no one knew that. The criticism of the 49ers that I think is fair is not waiting one more year to sign Brock since he was locked up for this year but I also know why they did it. They got rid of a bunch of contracts and locked up all their core guys this past offseason so they wanted to get the QB deal done as well. Still too early to determine if it was a bad deal or not. 4.5 more years to go but obviously in hindsight with Purdy getting hurt and Mac playing so well they might have saved themselves 10M a year if they waited on get the Purdy deal done until after this year. My argument with Purdy has always been he doesn't have a lot of teams that he is a great fit with. Because he has size and arm strength limitations you can't just drop him into any system so I think the 49ers had more leverage than him. They could have waited or squeezed him but overall I am ok with the contract. I hope he plays out the whole thing and it works out great. If not, I guess they will cut him in a couple years and take a huge dead cap hit. Time will tell.

I do wonder now that we are seeing some guys have success with second chances in their careers if QB salaries aside from the top guys will come down a bit