As we all know, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was the final player selected in the 2022 draft, and his “Mr. Irrelevant” status has been discussed over and over. Injuries placed the Iowa State alum in the starter’s role in Kyle Shanahan’s offense in his rookie season, and in his second year, Purdy has taken several steps forward, and far beyond where most ever expected him to be.
As we head into the Thanksgiving night game between Purdy’s 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks, the second-year man has some pretty impressive numbers on his resume.
Brock Purdy season ranks
NFL Rank
Pass Rating 115.1 1st
Comp pct 70.2% 1st
TD/Att 6.5% 1st
Yards/Att 9.7 1st
Yards/Comp 13.8 1st pic.twitter.com/EdrEsr7aZ0— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 21, 2023
Purdy is also letting the deep ball rip. This season, he has completed 22 of 33 passes of 20 or more air yards for 684 yards, seven touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 136.7. Only C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans has completed more deep passes this season (23), and only Stroud (144.2) has a higher passer rating on those deep throws.
“He’s done a great job,” Seahawks safety Julian Love said this week. “Every great quarterback that there ever was, puts the ball in the hands of his playmakers, and they have a lot of playmakers. He’s doing a good job of effectively getting it to them. To do that at a young age is pretty remarkable. He’s a tough kid and he presents some challenges, how he attacks. He’s doing his job at a high level this year more than last year.”
Here’s one example of Purdy’s deep-ball acumen. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10, Purdy correctly read Jacksonville’s spinning coverage, and made the throw to receiver Brandon Aiyuk as his third read, on time, with cornerback Darious Williams and safety Tre Herndon converging.
You can call Purdy a “system quarterback,” and some do, and you can say that he’s just throwing to wide-open guys in Shanahan’s expansive offense, but the tape tells a very different story. Purdy is playing as well as any quarterback in the NFL right now. He’s coming off a performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which he completed 21 of 25 passes for 333 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and the highest possible passer rating of 158.3. That won him NFC Offensive Player of the Week, and the Seahawks’ defense knows what it’s in for.
In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into why Purdy has been so effective this season, and why he’s become more than just Shanahan’s latest system quarterback.
You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” video, previewing all of Week 12’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:
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