SANTA CLARA — Brock Purdy didn’t take the bait.
On Thursday morning, Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson joined former NFL player Bryant McFadden on his “All Things Covered” podcast and predicted he’d intercept 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy during Sunday’s season opener.
“There is some tell signs out there that tells us what we’re gonna get when those guys are in certain situations,” Peterson said. “When I get my pick Sunday, we’ll talk about it.”
A few hours after the quote was shared widely on social media, a reporter read the quote back to Brock, but the 23-year-old played it cool.
“I don’t know what to really say about that,” Purdy said with a smile. “He’s a good player. Patrick Peterson’s a great player. I grew up watching him and everything. I grew up in Arizona and he played for the Cardinals and stuff. It’s the competitive nature I guess of football. We’ll see.”
Veteran response from Purdy, who didn’t give Steelers any bulletin board material.
Purdy was just 11 years old when Peterson made his NFL debut and saw him in his prime, as the veteran corner was named to eight straight Pro Bowls to begin his career. Now they’ll be facing each other for the first time on Sunday.
Peterson has seen a lot of quarterbacks in his day and didn’t sound too worried about Purdy. The 49ers would probably argue that Purdy proved himself by leading eight straight wins en route to the NFC Championship last year, but Peterson wants to see proof himself.
“He just do a great job of putting the ball where it needs to go and not making many mistakes,” Peterson said. “We’re gonna have to force him to be a professional quarterback.”