NFC Notes: Brock Purdy, Cooper Kupp, 49ers, Rams, Seahawks

49ers

• 49ers owner Jed York on the progress of contract negotiations with Purdy: “I don’t negotiate contracts, but any conversations I’ve had with Brock personally have been great. I feel good. And when he’s ready, we’ll sit down and finish it. It shouldn’t be that hard to do.” (Matt Barrows)
• York continued on Purdy: “I think he is [a top-10 quarterback]. I think he’s great. Especially when you combine him with Kyle and what we have, he’s a heck of a quarterback and we want him here for a long, long time.” (David Lombardi)
• 49ers TE coach Brian Fleury has been promoted to run game coordinator, according to HC Kyle Shanahan. (Matt Maiocco)
• Shanahan was asked why the team didn’t attempt to get a deal done sooner with LB Dre Greenlaw, who wound up signing with Denver: “We tried to. There are negotiating tactics. Also, it’s not just one player at a time, you’re working on 20 different things at a time. You’re trying to get a backup tackle, you’re trying to get a quarterback. You’re working a linebacker, you’re working all these positions, and they just don’t go in order. You’re negotiating with agents and … Sometimes you see something on Twitter just like you guys saw. And then we’d still like another shot and took another shot and we weren’t able to get it done.” (Mike Klis)

Rams

The Rams released WR Cooper Kupp this offseason without approaching him regarding a revised contract to keep him in Los Angeles. Rams GM Les Snead spoke on why they felt it was time to move on and why they didn’t speak with Kupp about changing his contract.

“It’s … the player’s phase of the career doesn’t necessarily align with the club’s. That would be the No. 1 reason (to release him),” Snead said, via Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic. “I think that in this case, to be frank, we did make a decision that it’s probably best to say, ‘Let’s part ways, let’s go in different directions, let’s begin next chapters’ versus trying to come up with some version of a win-win or tradeoff in many different variables… I think that’s always the hard thing about professional sports.”

• Snead also expects C Coleman Shelton to be the starter after spending one year away from the Rams following five years in Los Angeles.

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald said they are going into the 2025 season with expectations to compete for a Super Bowl. 

“I want to win the Super Bowl,” Macdonald said, via John Boyle of the team’s site. “That’s the expectation, man. Every time you step on the field, your expectation is to win. When I was a high school coach, our head coach, Xarvia Smith, got the staff together in the summer and he’s like, ‘Hey, write down what you think our record is going to be this year.’ And guys would turn in like 8-2 or 7-3, 9-1 or whatever. And to those people, he was like, ‘What games are we going to lose so we can just go ahead and not play those games?’ So if you go into this whole process not expecting to win, you’re not doing it the right way.”

Macdonald said they are trying to build a tough team with good chemistry. 

“Right now, we’re preaching tough and connected,” Macdonald said. “So how do we build a tough football team that goes through people, not around them, and how do we become the most connected team in the league? That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Seahawks GM John Schneider thinks they have a better understanding of what Macdonald is seeking in a pass rusher and linebacker following his first season as head coach. 

“We’re so much further ahead in knowing what each one of those guys really wants in a pass-rusher or a linebacker,” Schneider said. “Guys were just getting settled last year, so it was really hard to be like, ‘OK, we’re going to trust this coach because he’s coached that guy,’ and we don’t necessarily know that coach that well yet, and we’re not all speaking the same language as well as we should be. So I think we’re just much further ahead and able to compensate for some of those deficiencies quicker than we were last year. I’m excited about it.”