2024 - Brock Purdy, the unloved prodigy

Brock Purdy’s story has it all. Last pick in the 2022 draft, thrust into the starting role and experiencing instant success, he has the opportunity to become the youngest quarterback in history to win the Super Bowl. However, his detractors like to denigrate him.

Hard to believe, but true. The more Purdy seems to prove himself, the more there are doubts about him or diminishing his performance.

It’s strange to say the least, considering how much the football world usually loves fairy tales featuring big underdogs.

Purdy didn’t make too much noise during four seasons in a college program that isn’t renowned at Iowa State. He was relegated to the very end of the NFL draft, inheriting the unflattering nickname of Mr. Irrelevant (Mr. Insignificant), as is the tradition of the annual auction.

The 49ers supposedly had their franchise quarterback in Trey Lance, selected third overall a year earlier, then decided to trade him when Purdy exploded when they had no choice but to take him. hand over the ball.

Purdy has since gone 17-4 in the regular season, with 44 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions. His average of 9.2 yards per attempted pass is astonishing. And yet…

Difficult to understand

Getty Images via AFP

This kind of improbable story usually arouses universal admiration. When he takes the field against the Chiefs, he will become the third youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl game.

He will also be the only seventh-round pick to be up for the big game. When Kurt Warner, completely ignored in the draft, experienced this scenario in 1999, everyone agreed to emphasize the grandiose side of the accomplishment.

When sixth-round pick Tom Brady toppled Warner and the Rams two years later, it was the apotheosis of the underdog.

If a fringe of fans and analysts admire Purdy, many seem to be incapable of blaming him and consider that he is only a puppet through the solid receivers of the 49ers and the formidable carrier Christian McCaffrey, in Kyle’s formidable offensive system Shanahan.

As if Kurt Warner had not also benefited from a host of good receivers and the most dynamic carrier of his era in Marshall Faulk, behind the creative genius of Mike Martz.

Both fell in the right place at the right time, but that doesn’t take away from their talent.

Reviews from everywhere

As soon as a misstep occurs, the big talkers pounce on him.

“I’m not surprised, I knew who he really was,” said former player and now antagonist Shannon Sharpe, after a rare two-interception game for Purdy.

“If everything isn’t perfect around him, he doesn’t deliver the goods. If Brock Purdy is elite, we must find another definition for Patrick Mahomes,” he continued.

Before the second round of the playoffs, Amy Trask, a former executive with the Raiders, didn’t mind either.

“There are eight quarterbacks featured this week. There are seven incredible ones and there is Brock Purdy. He’s good, but I can’t put him in the same category as the others,” she agreed.

On his podcast, former quarterback Cam Newton also spoiled himself.

“Guys like him just manage the game. They don’t make the difference,” he shouted.

Host Colin Cowherd even found a way to disparage Purdy because he showed up at a press briefing with his cap on backwards.

“I like it when quarterbacks are adults. His cap is turned upside down. He’s not a franchise quarterback. A guy like him would come and move your couch and you’d wonder if he’s professional enough to do it,” he complained.

On a mission

In his first playoff game this year against the Packers in the rain, he didn’t look good and the detractors came out with a vengeance.

He still rallied the offense during his two outings and the 49ers went to the Super Bowl with him.

Poor young man! He seems doomed not only to win, but to have a crazy match to finally be recognized for his true value.

Whether he wins or loses, the film that comes out about his life in 25 years will be excellent.