49ers NFL Draft 2022: Deep dive into ‘Mr. Irrelevant,’ Brock Purdy
By Chris Wilson
49ers expectations for rookie QB Brock Purdy
Brock Purdy is more efficient in the pocket, but he’s quite dangerous on the run – for both the offense and the defense. He often suffers from inconsistency and inaccuracy when he throws from outside the pocket where he also tends to make his worst decisions. Purdy will need to clean up that part of his game over the next few months.
One thing he doesn’t lack is excitement as soon as he decides to leave the pocket.
Although his preference is to run, Purdy is capable of either flinging a perfect off-balanced pass to a double-covered receiver as he takes a big hit, throwing a pass directly at a defender or simply tossing the football up in the air in the general direction of a covered receiver.
But when the wannabe gunslinger and Brett Farve fan gets into a groove, it’s easy to see how he racked up 100 total touchdowns at Iowa State, 19 of them on the ground.
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However, if Mr. Irrelevant unfortunately lives up to his name, it won’t be due to his poor decisions or his flurry of interceptable passes.
Purdy simply doesn’t have an NFL-caliber arm.
As Keith Sanchez of The Draft Network cruelly stated in his pre-draft review of the Iowa State project, “Purdy lacks the natural arm strength to throw an accurate pass 30-plus yards down the field.” While Sanchez’s comment is a bit of an exaggeration, it’s not far from the truth, as demonstrated in this potential touchdown-turned-interception.
Given his character and leadership qualities, and his history of making highlight-caliber plays, Purdy has the ability to grow into the type of backup quarterback NFL teams hate to face. But barring a drastic improvement in arm strength or an unlikely mechanics fix, his odds of winning a starting quarterback role are significantly longer than his 29-inch arms.