National Football League

How Chiefs, 49ers executed very different team-building models to perfection

Published Feb. 2, 2024 11:25 a.m. ET

Because of where the San Francisco 49ers drafted Brock Purdy (with the very last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft), he is one of the NFL's lowest-paid players.

It's a great salary. In 2024, he'll make $1.1 million, the largest salary of his career. But somehow, it doesn't feel like NFL money, right? His signing bonus, for example, was $77,008. Many undrafted players make more than that, but because Purdy was drafted, it locks in his earnings through the NFL's collective bargaining agreement.

Of course, something tells me Purdy was happy to get drafted where and when he did. He's in the Super Bowl with the 49ers and an MVP candidate in his second NFL season. Purdy will duel against Patrick Mahomes in Las Vegas on Super Bowl Sunday.

Would you like to guess what Mahomes will make in 2024?

His salary will be 44 times what Purdy makes. Mahomes is set to make $44.5 million, with a salary-cap hit of $57.4 million. He has received multiple signing bonuses throughout his half-billion-dollar contract, which has already been re-negotiated once.

Their salaries highlight two successful models of offensive team-building. Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has the best quarterback on the planet and paid him as such. San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch found a game-managing quarterback on a low-budget deal and coach Kyle Shanahan has built an offense around Purdy.

You let your all-world QB act like Daenerys Targaryen and burn the NFL world to ash.

Or you get a good-to-great QB and, while he's still on a rent-controlled rookie deal, you surround him with some of the league's best skill players.

So let's look at how each team did it.

How the Chiefs built a talented roster around Mahomes' enormous contract

The Chiefs liked Mahomes as far back as his freshman season at Texas Tech. It's not surprising that a GM would be enamored with a QB prospect as soon as he flashes prodigious talent, but it adds to some of the mythology of how Mahomes and the Chiefs came together. Because it's not like Mahomes fell to Kansas City in the draft. The Chiefs had to trade up to the 10th pick in 2017 with a package of the 27th pick, the 91st pick and a 2018 first-rounder.

"I think Patrick had just finished his freshman year at Texas Tech and I can remember Veach coming in … he was in love with Patrick after his freshman year," said quarterback Alex Smith, who was the team's starting QB at the time. "[Veach] came into the QB room, and he was like, ‘You guys gotta see this guy.' Because we would always talk ball — talk college football — and he had his eyes for a long time. I'll say that. And so did Andy [Reid]."

Patrick Mahomes the greatest football player of all-time?

Mahomes sat for almost all of his rookie season and then replaced Smith in 2018. Mahomes was instantly one of the NFL's best players and his playing style changed the NFL. At that point, Mahomes' roster looked a lot like Purdy's does. In Mahomes' first season as a starter, he had receivers Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins as well as tight end Travis Kelce.

The situation has changed a lot since then. Mahomes still has Kelce and a good offensive line. But the Chiefs' WR talent pool has been dire for a few years. It's a testament to Mahomes' development that the Chiefs offense has rarely looked out of sorts during the playoffs given how little support he has gotten from his receivers in recent years.

Kansas City has whiffed on draft picks and trades at the position from Mecole Hardman to Skyy Moore to Kadarius Toney. Rookie Rashee Rice appears to be the first bullseye at the position, as he nearly eclipsed 1,000 yards this season. He's a great youngster at the position and is producing as their WR1 — but I'm not sure he's a nightmare for defensive coordinators (yet).

Throughout the turbulence at receiver, Mahomes has continued to win Super Bowls at a clip that we've only seen from Tom Brady — and put up statistics at a clip that we've only seen from Peyton Manning. Mahomes and coach Andy Reid have built a dynasty.

Several quarterbacks are hitting this phase of their career. Josh Allen, for example, officially has a chokehold over his team's salary cap, which is greatly impacting their ability to add talent this offseason. It will be fascinating to see if Allen can take a Mahomes-level leap and continue his success despite losing some of the quality in his supporting cast.

But by getting it right at quarterback, the Chiefs have found a guy who can erase most of the other issues on their offense.

Tom Brady on how Mahomes compares to all-time great QBs

How the 49ers have assembled their Avengers on offense

The 49ers have instead gone the way of building an offense that will erase most of the issues they have at quarterback. And goodness, have they had issues at the position. We'll get to those problems — the long string of quarterbacks (many of them mediocre or below-average) who have started for Shahanan.

But let's look at how this ensemble of elite players has come together.

The first piece was tight end George Kittle, who doesn't get the respect he deserves because he's such a good blocker and the Shanhan system has asked him to do more of that since the arrival of the team's talented skill players. But Kittle led tight ends in receiving yards (1,020) in 2023, just edging Kelce's 984. The 49ers drafted Kittle in the fifth round and then re-signed him to a massive $75 million contract.

That's a common theme among the 49ers skill players — they're highly paid. San Francisco can afford to fit all these talented players in their cap because of how little Purdy makes.

Christian McCaffrey, for example, is the highest-paid running back in the NFL ($16 million annually). The 49ers traded a second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick for McCaffrey in 2022. That's a huge haul, especially when there's a growing concern that running backs are replaceable and that #runningbacksdontmatter. While there's some truth to that, the 49ers have maximized their money by heavily involving McCaffrey in the passing and running game. In 16 games, he had 67 catches and 272 rushes. He scored 21 total touchdowns.

The 49ers found another non-traditional weapon in Deebo Samuel, a receiver they often used at the running back position. He also signed a massive deal: three years, $71 million.

The only member of San Francisco's elite playmaking group who hasn't gotten paid is WR Brandon Aiyuk, who is still playing on his rookie deal. His salary cap hit is set to jump from $4 million to $14 million from 2023 to 2024.

Does Brock Purdy still need to prove his critics wrong in the Super Bowl?

At basically every starting skill position, the 49ers pay massive money — except at quarterback. So how the heck did Purdy, dubbed Mr. Irrelevant in 2022 after being the draft's last selection, end up a starting QB in the Super Bowl?

Shanahan has moved from QB to QB; from Nick Mullens to C.J. Beathard to Jimmy Garoppolo to Trey Lance and finally to Purdy (with a dash of Sam Darnold). The 49ers thought they had their guy in Garoppolo until he seemed to limit their offense, most obviously on display when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. So San Francisco targeted a guy that they thought would be the next Mahomes.

No, I'm definitely not talking about Purdy. I'm talking about Lance.

Lynch and Shanahan traded up from 12th to third overall to get Lance in 2021. That didn't work out. Though Lance's career featured a few promising moments, his injuries piled up and his performance seemed to decline. Purdy eclipsed Lance and the 49ers never turned back.

Now, there's plenty of luck involved with Purdy's quality of play. Every NFL team passed on him multiple times. The Chiefs had the most picks in the 2022 draft, with 12. They passed on Purdy 12 times! So did the Jaguars. And the Packers passed on Purdy 10 times. And… well, you get the point. But the same was true of so many teams with Brady, who was the seventh quarterback taken in his draft.

Bill Belichick doesn't get ridiculed for passing on Brady multiple times — the former Patriots coach and general manager gets credit for drafting the greatest quarterback of all time. The same is true of Lynch. And much like Belichick decided to start Brady over veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe, Lynch and Shanahan deserve credit for going with Purdy over Lance and Sam Darnold this season.

It was the obvious choice, but that doesn't always make it an easy choice.

Because of Purdy's impressive supporting cast, he has become a point of intense debate.

Is he just another guy at QB? Is he a game manager — which would be a compliment, from my vantage point? (A quarterback that can manage a game is a great quarterback.) Is Purdy on the verge of establishing his greatness? Super Bowl LVIII will go a long way in helping Purdy prove himself.

What is certain is that these two teams have set the standard for how the rest of the NFL will try to reach the Super Bowl in future years.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.