MR. RELEVANT
Pals of 49ers backup QB know San Fran is in Purdy good shape
THE KNEE-JERK reaction the moment when Jimmy Garoppolo suffered his broken foot last Sunday was that the 49ers were no longer relevant as a Super Bowl contender.
And then Mr. Irrelevant showed up.
Name of Brock Purdy, the 262nd and last pick of the 2022 draft.
And what Brock Purdy did beating the Dolphins and keeping hope alive in San Francisco has served as the latest example of how the evaluation of quarterbacks can confound NFL decision-makers still groping about what an in inexact science it can be. Sure enough, the firstoverall pick of the 2018 draft, name of Baker Mayfield, was released by the Panthers before joining the Rams the very next day, his third team.
How in the name of Bailey Zappe did Brock Purdy out of nowhere become Mr. Relevant?
“He’s going to make a few mistakes, but I promise you, the team is in good hands with Brock Purdy,” Preston Jones said. He was Purdy’s coach at Perry High School in Gilbert, Ariz. “He’s going to give them just as good a chance to win as any backup quarterback in the NFL right now, my opinion.”
Before the legend of Brock Purdy mushroomed at Perry High, a former Bills backup quarterback and co-host of radio talk show “Roc and Manuch” named Dan Manucci began training him as a ninth grader. Through the years, whenever Purdy would return home, he would text Manucci for more training.
“The thing that stuck out to me about Brock was his focus and his determination at such a young age,” Manucci told Serby Says. “And that no matter how hard I train him, or work him, he’s very quiet as far as no complaints, it was always, ‘Thank you sir, may I have another?’ Until he got it right, he wouldn’t leave a particular drill or particular movements or mechanics until he got it right. He was like a sponge, he wanted to know, ‘What else is there, Coach?’ ”
If his hero Dan Marino could wear No. 13, so could Brock Purdy.
“He’s got to be one of the most fierce competitors and intrinsically-motivated guy I’ve ever coached,” Jones said. “His mentality in high school was every play he wanted to score. Sometimes Brock was so competitive, he had a hard time accepting that he had to punt the football.”
Purdy contracted mono his junior year and lost weight and strength. And that was hardly the extent of the adversity that confronted him.
“At the end of spring football, I always would take the seniors on a little senior outing,” Jones said, “and we went paint-balling. And the seniors paintball against the coaches. We were out in the desert, and Brock being the competitor he is, he thought that maybe him sliding back behind a cactus and sticking his hand out, he was stronger than the cactus. We found out that wasn’t the case. A cactus needle went into his hand, went to emergency room to get it out, they didn’t get it all out, so he had to have it get surgically removed.”
Only 6-foot-1, there was a period when Brock Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant to Power 5 schools. “He was everybody’s backup plan,” Jones said. Until he wasn’t. Rick Garretson, now the coach at Chandler H.S., was the offensive coordinator when Purdy and Perry lost to Chandler, 49-42, in the state championship game at the University of Arizona.
“He was just doing things that was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Garretson recalled with a chuckle. “Putting the ball the only place it could be caught. And he didn’t have like a bunch of guys going to Notre Dame. He had good high school players, but he just made everybody around him better, which is one of the things that a really good quarterback’s able to do.”
It was revealing to Garretson how Purdy’s teammates followed their leader.
“Talk about a guy with ice in his veins, he’s definitely that guy,” Garretson said. “Knows how to endure obstacles and tough times. He just had that ‘it’ factor.”
This is ‘it’: “He led by example,” Jones said. “When he did need to open his mouth, he got everybody’s attention on the team, and they followed anything and everything he said. He just had something about him when he walked in that room, man. He was friends with ’em, he was this that and the other, but boy, if he wasn’t happy with your effort or what you were doing, he was going to let you know, he knew how to put that friendship aside, which not a lot of teenagers really know how to do . ... He
would let you know if you weren’t doing it up to his expectation.” Matt Campbell and Iowa State fell in love with Purdy, and he became the school’s all-time leading passer in yards (12,170) and touchdowns (81). He beat Oregon, 34-17, in the 2021 Fiesta Bowl — 20-for-29, 156 yards, one touchdown, 9-for-39 rushing with one TD. “He calls checks really well, he reads the defense really well, and he’s a great decision-maker,” former Duck Kayvon Thibodeaux told Serby Says. “So he’s not going to just throw the ball up. Just as far as what I’ve seen, he’s a super-disciplined guy, and he’s definitely going to watch film and get his ins and outs that he needs. “I’m not comparing his game to Cooper Rush, but the same way Cooper Rush stepped in and was able to win some games for Dallas, I feel like Brock Purdy will be able to learn a system and step in and facilitate an NFL offense.” Purdy has an elite play-caller in coach Kyle Shanahan and playmakers everywhere he turns. They’ve been singing his praises leading into Sunday’s showdown with Mr. All-Time Relevant Tom Brady. “I felt anywhere between the fourth and maybe sixth or seventh round,” Manucci said. “He’s a playmaker, he’s a winner, and he’s a diligent hard worker at doing all the things he’s been doing since ninth grade.”
Or course, Purdy aspired to an NFL career.
“We used to talk all the time, as a matter of fact, a lot of the drills that we’ve been doing for years were based on training guys for that level,” Manucci said.
Purdy is the seventh Mr. Irrelevant quarterback.
“I didn’t even really realize exactly what Mr. Irrelevant was,” Jones said. “I had heard about it, I had forgotten about it, and then when he got drafted Mr. Irrelevant, I learned a lot more about it. And he didn’t even know a lot about what Mr. Irrelevant was and didn’t know what it all entailed, and didn’t realize he was gonna have to spend a week in Newport [Beach, Va.].
“That’s him, man, he’s always been overlooked, he’s always played the underdog role, where whatever he did and wherever he’s at, he’s always too small, he was always not fast enough, not a big enough arm. That award, of being the last pick of the draft, couldn’t be a better person to get that in my opinion, because he’s gonna take that, and he’s gonna roll with it.
“I always joke, I’m like, ‘Brock can fall in a pile of s--t and get up and smell like a rose. And it’s not because he got lucky. It’s because when he fell, he cleaned himself off quicker than everyone else, or he ducked and rolled, or whatever he did, he knew what he’s going to have to do to not smell bad when he fell in that pile.”
And now? The sweet smell of success for Brock Purdy?