The Minnesota Vikings have had to dig deep on their quarterback depth chart this season, which is why they had to turn to undrafted rookie Max Brosmer.
The rookie drew comparisons to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy going into his first NFL start, but that prediction proved to be laughable.
Brosmer started last Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, and announcer Joe Davis, who it should be noted also calls Los Angeles Dodgers games, brought up during the broadcast how similar Purdy and Brosmer were, given that they were unheralded prospects out of college who played a lot at smaller schools.
He said everyone around the team was speaking about Brosmer in a similar fashion to how people spoke about Purdy when he had to take over starting duties after Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo both went down with injuries in 2022.
Sure, on paper, the situation may have seemed similar as Minnesota has already seen its second-year quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, whom the Vikings spent a first-round draft pick on, get injured and not look all that great even when he has been on the field. Some shades of Lance with that situation, although the Vikings parted with far less to move up to draft McCarthy than the Niners did to draft Lance, which ended up being a major bust.
Then, Minnesota also lost veteran quarterback Carson Wentz to injury, and he fits neatly into the Garoppolo role.
However, while Purdy was thrust into action and delivered the goods right away, Brosmer had an absolute dud of a performance as he completed 19 of his 30 pass attempts for 126 yards and threw four interceptions, including one on an absolute boneheaded play where he was getting sacked and just chucked it up wildly to a defender who returned it for a touchdown.
Keep in mind that in Purdy’s first real NFL action, he came in relief of Garoppolo and led the Niners to an important win over the Miami Dolphins before following it up with a legendary performance in his first career start against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as he simply outclassed Tom Brady on the opposing side.
Looks like those “Brosmer is the next Purdy” hot takes did not come out of the oven quite right. They came out burnt and probably deserve to go in the trash.
Yet, the Niners may play a role in helping save the Vikings from their putrid quarterback situation. They have a valuable trade chip in Mac Jones, whom they could deal to Minnesota in the offseason and potentially get a decent return on.
Brosmer could turn things around and have a decent NFL career, but after his first career NFL start, it is clear that he has a long way to go until he can be mentioned in the same breath as Purdy.