Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
From Mr. Irrelevant to Brock star
Purdy emerges as unlikely hero to lead 49ers to title
Most fans thought the 49ers were in trouble when quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a potential season-ending foot injury in Week 13.
His replacement, Brock Purdy, was the last player selected in the 2022 NFL draft out of Iowa State. A team with Super Bowl aspirations suddenly was stuck playing Mr. Irrelevant at quarterback.
But Purdy has turned into the modern equivalent of Tom Brady, coming off the bench and leading the 49ers to three straight wins while completing over 67 percent of his passes and tossing six touchdowns. He will try to make it four straight when the NFC West-leading 49ers (11-4) play the Raiders (69) on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
So, who is Brock Purdy anyway? And how did he end up in San Francisco?
Turns out it goes back to the draft process when a Zoom call was set up with Purdy and 49ers quarterback coaches Brian Griese and Klay Kubiak.
As Purdy tells it, the three “walked through some plays at Iowa State, my story and how I think, all that kind of stuff.”
Impressed by Purdy’s tape and what they heard in the meeting, Griese and Kubiak kept track of Purdy and, as draft weekend unfolded, started zeroing in on him.
“And then going into the last day of the draft, Kubiak and Griese called me and just caught up and said, ‘Hopefully we can have the opportunity to take you today at some point,” Purdy said.
In the meantime, Purdy and his agent were formulating a plan in case he went undrafted.
“There were a bunch of teams calling that had interest and wanted to meet up and then obviously have me sign with them,” Purdy said. “We had a list going, but there wasn’t exactly one team that I was going to go to.”
All that became moot when the 49ers took Purdy in the seventh round.
The next step was learning coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, which was daunting at the outset.
“Having Griese and Kubiak explain the playbook to me, (it was) so different from college,” Purdy said. “But I just kept chipping away at it. You don’t just learn it over a week or anything, it’s been a whole process and still I’m not 100 percent grounded in it yet. I definitely have a foundation, but there’s still more that I can learn and grasp. From where I’m at now to where I was on the first day, it’s crazy, but once you know the system, it’s awesome playing in it.”
His teammates have been impressed.
“He’s done a great job,” wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk said. “He’s the same guy that we’ve seen the past three weeks. At this point, we know exactly who he is. Nobody’s surprised anymore.”