Mr. Irrelevant

I don’t know who is going to win the Super Bowl this evening. Both teams are very good, highly talented with some future Hall-of Famers. You could make a strong case for either team. There are several side stories of interest. Patrick Mahomes is on pace to eclipse Tom Brady’s career success. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift have dominated the news surrounding the Super Bowl to the dismay of football purists. But I am fascinated by the quarterback of the 49ers, Brock Purdy. He came into the league last season as “Mr. Irrelevant”. That’s the name that they give to the last player selected in the draft. Brock Purdy was the 262nd player picked in the 2022 NFL Draft. 261 players were selected in front of him, and since he got his opportunity to play in week 13 last season, you could make an argument that he actually is the most relevant player from that year’s draft. He has gone 17-4 as a starter in the regular season and 4-1 in the playoffs. His only loss in the playoffs happened when he was knocked out of the game in the 1st quarter with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. And this season, in only his second year in the NFL, he has led the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Some people don’t think that he is all that good. As he has admitted many times himself, he is not overly talented. He is not the biggest, strongest, faster, nor has strongest arm – far from it. He is not the prototypical NFL quarterback. He does not look like Josh Allen; he doesn’t have the arm talent of Patrick Mahomes; he does not have the speed and athleticism of Lamar Jackson. In fact, physically, he looks overwhelmingly average. And it all makes sense that he would be selected 262nd in the draft. There were probably 261 players who had more pure physical ability than he has.