Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers looks to pass the ball in the second quarter against the Denver Broncos at Levi’s Stadium on Oct. 4, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif.

Longtime San Francisco 49ers reporter David Lombardi and one of ESPN’s top NFL analysts Mina Kimes spent nearly 24 hours in a social media spat. And if you’ve ever read Lombardi’s social media postings before, you probably already guessed the topic: Niners quarterback Brock Purdy.

Lombardi has covered the 49ers since 2017 and is in his third season at the San Francisco Standard. But ever since Purdy has taken over under center, Lombardi has been at the forefront of the discourse around the quarterback. If there was an award for the internet’s biggest Brock believer, Lombardi would have no doubt earned it by this point.

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So far this season, it’s been hard to say Purdy hasn’t earned all of the praise, from Lombardi or anyone else. Through three games, Purdy is miles ahead of every other quarterback in QBR, the stat ESPN developed to measure a quarterback’s complete game performance. In Week 4, Purdy and the Niners had a matchup with the Broncos, who have been one of the NFL’s better defenses in recent years.

Purdy struggled in the first half but had a surge in the second, leading the 49ers to victory with an overall solid, if unspectacular, day: completing 19 of 30 passes for 218........

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