The San Francisco 49ers are set to back young ace QB Brock Purdy, with head coach Kyle Shanahan hinting that the former Iowa State star can provide a championship spark.
Purdy came into the NFL as the final pick of the 2022 draft, and was soon dubbed ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ but pundits, players and coaches are starting to come round to the Purdy charm.
Purdy came from nowhere last season and impressed, before an unfortunate elbow injury in postseason cast some doubt about his performance coming into his sophomore year.
However, Shanahan has little doubt about Purdy making a comeback from surgery, when he tore the UCL in his right elbow, his throwing arm.
“[It’s] the same thing I saw before he got hurt," Shanahan said. "Nothing different."
The 262nd draft pick was the third string QB in 2022, but a season ending injury to first round pick Trey Lance and a foot injury to the experienced Jimmy Garoppolo saw him thrust into the spotlight, limelight, heck the deer light.
But Purdy was no Bambi on ice, and he performed well, despite his three-star High School rating and relative obscurity.
“We were studying college quarterbacks [this offseason], and I know we’re not taking any, but I just like to watch the first-round guys just so I can stack them up," Shanahan said. "In February, I went back and watched Brock’s last game versus Clemson.
“I’m watching guys, trying to evaluate where they’ll go [in the 2023 draft], and I thought, ‘After watching these guys, let me go watch Brock again, just from college — not the NFL — just to compare.
“I was like, ‘Well, s***. He looks like a first- or second-round guy in college,’" Shanahan said. "We put him in the fourth round, I thought he’d still be there in the sixth, then we took him in the seventh. … Now it’s easy to see.
“It’s not like it just happened. He’s always been a good player."
Coming into the 49ers during the game against the Miami Dolphins, Purdy became the first 262 pick to throw a touchdown pass in a regular season game, quickly turning into “Mr. Relevant."
Later that year he became the first QB rookie starter to beat a Tom Brady team, and after two games became the second player in history to record a rating of 115 or greater, joining the talismanic Aaron Rodgers on the list.
The rise to hero was not unnoticed and Shanahan all but said Purdy would be the starter this season, despite the usual preseason stat stack-up against fellow rivals, measuring all the usual QB metrics. Lance and Sam Darnold appear to have fallen down the 49ers pecking order.
Shanahan looks to fully believe in his prodigious young QB and with last season’s numbers and accolades, it seems to be a no-brainer.
The understudy to the understudy is now the main protagonist and an unfussed Shanahan seems to have made some time to rewatch an old Iowa vs Clemson match, and admitting Purdy should have gone much higher in the draft.
Mr Irrelevant is on his way to being the hottest property in town, and it shows the adage of rather judge ‘the fight in the dog’.
Shanahan is convinced Purdey could be on his way to a championship this season and who could blame him?
