San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy went from last draft pick to an NFC Championship game

What has happened since over the course of this season is one of the most spectacular out-of-nowhere stories ever in football.

After both quarterbacks ahead of him got hurt, Purdy got the job leading a playoff contender. And he hasn’t lost since. Purdy’s streak of seven straight wins as a starter — including two in the playoffs — now has him playing for a spot in the Super Bowl in the NFC Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Purdy has authored some phenomenal games himself, and others in which his mistake-free play allowed the Niners other-worldly defence to decide the outcomes. The latter is how San Francisco won its divisional round game Sunday night 19-12 over the Dallas Cowboys.

How has he done it? Purdy has the enormous benefit of playing for coach Kyle Shanahan, perhaps the most innovative offensive schemer in the league. The 49ers have arguably the best collection of offensive talent around. And even though he was selected with the 262nd pick, there may not have been another rookie quarterback more prepared to be thrown in the fire than Purdy.

The 49ers only got the last pick of the 2022 NFL draft through an arcane system that awards teams compensatory selections for losing more qualifying players in free agency than it brings in. No team received more compensatory picks in the last draft than San Francisco. Some were as early as the third round. The final one was the very last pick.

The Niners originally planned to target Purdy in undrafted free agency, but that extra seventh-round selection — which bestows the title “Mr. Irrelevant” upon one player every year — was the perfect opportunity to splurge on a player that intrigued the coaching staff even though the team didn’t need a quarterback.

“We got the last pick,” Shanahan said in April. “We thought it was perfect,”

There were a few things about Purdy that had piqued the interest of the 49ers. They thought he was tough. They viewed him as a player who excelled in the pocket. But the one quality that the team’s brass repeatedly emphasised was that Purdy had a level of experience that most college quarterbacks lack.

At Iowa State, Purdy became the team’s starter as a freshman and held on to the job through his senior year. By the time his college career was over, he had thrown a whopping 1,467 passes — and completed 67.7% of them. Due to the length of his tenure and his sheer productivity, the Iowa State record books are now littered with the name Purdy.

That happened to be valuable to the 49ers. They touted his experience as soon as they selected him as proof he might not be some sort of developmental project.

“He’s got a ton of reps,” Shanahan said after the draft. “You’re not looking [at] what you can develop him into, you’re looking at, this guy knows how to play the position.”

Still, it was no guarantee Purdy would even make the roster. Shanahan also described him as someone who could “give himself a chance to make a team.”

The 49ers were long on quarterbacks entering the season. In 2021, they traded three first round picks to move up and take Trey Lance third overall in the draft. They still had Jimmy Garoppolo, the quarterback who three years ago led them to a Super Bowl appearance. Which meant there wasn’t even a clear path for Purdy to get time as the backup.

San Francisco, though, was quickly happy that it kept Purdy around. Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the second week of the season. A month and a half later, Garoppolo got hurt. Suddenly, it was Purdy time.

The situation Purdy stepped into was undeniably enviable. Shanahan’s offensive system, which relies on a heavy dose of pre-snap motion and drives opposing defences crazy with how it deploys skill-position players at multiple positions, is at the NFL’s cutting edge.

Purdy was also surrounded by the type of talent that any quarterback would salivate over. Trent Williams has a case as the league’s best offensive tackle. Wide receiver Deebo Samuel breaks games open and can even take the ball out of the backfield. Tight end George Kittle can be the most difficult player in football to tackle. To add to their riches, the Niners had traded for superstar running back Christian McCaffrey midway through the season.

The combination of talent and Shanahan’s schemes reduce the pressure on the team’s quarterback. Brilliance isn’t always required. Often, mere competence suffices because the play designs and playmaking ability elsewhere take care of the rest.

There’s even a way of quantifying how much all of that helps the Niners’ quarterbacks. Over the last five seasons, San Francisco has led the league in average yards after the catch — ranking no worse than second in any individual year over the last half decade. In other words: if the team’s quarterback can just get the ball in a receiver’s hands, big things happen.

In this environment, Purdy has thrived. During his first start, he led a dominant 35-7 win over a former sixth-round pick named Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Purdy finished the regular season with 13 passing touchdowns, four interceptions and a 5-0 record as a starter.

Then he was phenomenal in San Francisco’s opening playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. He threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns while running for another score.

Purdy was less of a world-beater Sunday against Dallas’s elite defence, but he did much of what’s required for 49ers quarterbacks: avoid mistakes. He threw 29 passes for 214 yards, without a touchdown but also sans an interception.

Now Purdy is just one win away from playing in a Super Bowl. No matter what happens next, he has already completely altered his career trajectory.

Nobody would be surprised if Mr. Irrelevant begins next season as the Niners’ starting quarterback.

– Wall Street Journal