49ers' Brock Purdy declines to address Cam Newton's 'game manager' allegations: 'I'm playing quarterback'

Purdy is in the mix for the MVP award thanks to his fantastic performance

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is one of the leading candidates for the NFL's 2023 MVP award. Earlier this week, Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys briefly surpassed Purdy as the outright favorite at Caesars Sportsbook, but Purdy has re-taken the top spot with odds of just +130. He also checked in second in our MVP watch poll (behind Prescott) for the second consecutive week. 

Still, there are people who do not think Purdy is doing all that much of the work, and try to discredit him. The most recent example of that was former NFL MVP Cam Newton, who said on a podcast that Purdy and Prescott, among others, are merely "game managers."

"They're not winning because of him," Newton said of Purdy. "He's managing the game. And if we were to put that in its own right as game managers: Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff. And really, Dak Prescott. These are game managers. They're not difference makers."

Purdy was asked about Newton's comments, but declined to directly address them. "I don't know," Purdy said during his media availability, per Pro Football Talk. "I don't want to comment on that. Like I said, I'm playing quarterback, trying to win games and we'll see at the end of all of it."

Game manager or not, Purdy has completed a league-high 70.2% of his passes at a league-high average of 9.9 yards per attempt, with 25 touchdowns against 7 interceptions, giving him a league-high 116.9 passer rating, league-high 74.6 QBR, and league-high 0.29 EPA/play (per Tru Media). I'm fairly sure that both he and the 49ers will take that type of production from anybody, regardless of who thinks they might be a game manager.