Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz, Jori Epstein and Charles Robinson discuss what the San Francisco quarterback is doing in Kyle Shanahan’s offense is exactly what the 49ers need despite what the critics are saying. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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CHARLES ROBINSON: When Kirk Cousins had his season end in injury, I was talking to somebody close to Kirk, and he was like, the reason why-- part of the reason why this was so devastating for Kevin O'Connell was because the Shanahan offense is not easy to learn. It's difficult to learn.

And he told me, he said, Kirk finally got comfortable in his second year. That's why he was playing at such a high level because the Shanahan offense, it's, like, predicated. You go to the line of scrimmage, you've got to have three plays in your back pocket, right? And that first year, you're pretty much going up there with, like, one, like, maybe two. Like, I think I got it, maybe a wristband in it, whatever.

When it clicked for Kirk, you saw that jump. And so for Purdy, it seems like he's gotten to master it pretty quickly. And think about how long Kirk's been in the league. And it really took him two years to get fully versed in that-- in Shanahan's system, which is what they run in Minnesota.

JORI EPSTEIN: And there's a situational awareness, too. I got Brock one on one for a little bit yesterday, and he was talking to me about-- he's like, look, I go up to the line of scrimmage. There's two plays. Now, I usually don't have more than 8 seconds left on the play clock because Kyle's been talking to me all this time.

Well, now we're in the game against-- they were in the game against the Packers. And Juszczyk is saying like, hey, you tight end, over here, motion. And Brock realizes, no, actually we have two seconds left on the play clock. If he motions, even though that is what was meant to happen in the play and to flip the formation, well, then they got to delay the game. And so he has to be aware of that at all times.

And so I think that when the 49ers were saying, like, Brock is a very aggressive quarterback, that might be like, well, what if he's not airing it deep all the time, which he has done at times. And it's, like, for him, aggressive is being aggressively able to make the decisions that Kyle wants to and that will best allow his teammates to succeed.

And the last thing I'll say on that is that at first when I was talking to-- I talked to his quarterbacks coach, Brian Griese, and also Assistant Quarterbacks Coach Clay Kubiak. I can-- the way they were talking at first, I was kind of like, this sounds a little cliche.

And then I started to think, like-- we asked them what does Kyle want in a quarterback? And they said, Kyle wants a quarterback who can get a ton of information thrown at him at once, process it, and not be slowed down by it. And it's true. Like, it sounds cliche, but he is doing it in a way that some other coaches don't require.

And I mean, you see that on defenses, too. Some defenses are like, no, we just want to attack and make it as simple. And others want to get fancy with their blitzes, et cetera. And so I think that this is a legitimate difference between teams, even at the highest level.

JASON FITZ: Yeah, to me, all of that, by the way, speaks to-- as much as we want to sit here and say is he a system quarterback? Is he a game manager? If he's a system quarterback in a system where it works, and he's managing the game for somebody that wants it, like--

JORI EPSTEIN: It's hard to do.

JASON FITZ: But like, who cares if that's-- like, if that's what-- we make it--

JORI EPSTEIN: I think it's a compliment. That's what I wrote.

JASON FITZ: Right, I think that there's this element of, OK, cool. You got the right system quarterback for the right system.

CHARLES ROBINSON: OK, so this is so stupid. Like, it really is just a dumb-- it's-- it's, like, the derogative remark that we make about quarterbacks who we think are limited. That's just our way of saying he's limited.

Patrick Mahomes isn't limited. Josh Allen isn't limited. But Kirk is limited. Brock is limited, you know. Like, come on.

JASON FITZ: All that matters is, do the 49ers have their quarterback for the next x amount of years? And the answer-- to me, the answer to that is quite simply yes. That's all that matters.

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