Mr. Relevant: The Improbable Rise of Brock Purdy…

everyone loves a good Underdog Story there's something about a player or team to find the odds that is extremely fun to watch the unpredictability of underdogs play a huge role in why so many people love sports if the team that was favored to win always won or the top players taken in the draft always panned out to be the best players in the league then Sports wouldn't be nearly as interesting and right now in the NFL we are in the middle of one of the greatest Underdog Stories the league has ever seen even if you're not the biggest NFL fan there's still a good chance you've heard the name Brock Purdy within the last couple of weeks because everything this guy has gone through to get into the position he's in right now is pretty incredible so we're gonna break down his entire story in this video before I get into it welcome to the War Room a channel where I discuss all things sports related subscribe to the channel if you're new and let's get straight to it Purdy was ranked as a three-star QB coming out of Perry High School in Gilbert Arizona in Purdy's senior year of high school he led his team to the Arizona state champ Championship but unfortunately they came up short losing 49-42 during that season Purdy threw for 4 410 yards and 57 touchdowns while rushing for 1106 yards and 10 touchdowns these numbers made him the Arizona Gatorade player of the year for 2017. it was now time for Purdy to begin his college career he visited five schools Boise State Iowa State Central Florida Alabama and Texas A M looking at the list of these schools you might think that Alabama is a no-brainer but Brock Purdy didn't have a good experience when meeting head coach Nick Saban his high school football coach recalled a conversation he had with Brock after meeting Saban and which Brock said quote he didn't really know me he said you're below average in height your arm strength is whatever your accuracy is average once Brock heard Saban call his accuracy average he knew right away that Saban was ill-informed on the type of player he was because accuracy was objectively one of Purdy's strengths in high school Purdy ended up committing to Iowa State University because they made him feel the most at home Iowa State's starting quarterback heading into the season was senior Kyle Kent the second string QB was a sophomore Zeb Nolan and Purdy as the Freshman was the third Stringer in Iowa State's first game of the 2018 season kempt went down with an MCL injury in the loss and Nolan was now the starting QB in week 2 against Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma Sooners Nolan didn't play badly in this game but the team still lost he started again the next week and had a decent game versus Akron for the win but week four is where things fell apart for Noland against TCU as he went 14 for 28 passing for 79 yards and a touchdown in a team 17-14 loss making them one in three week five Nolan started against the number 25 ranked team in the country the Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road after going three and out on the first drive then letting up a touchdown on the first defensive Drive Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell made the decision to let the 18 year old true freshman Brock Purdy get his moment and what happened next is something straight out of a movie Purdy finished with 318 yards passing four touchdowns and only one interception in the 48-42 win over Oklahoma State and ever since this game just like that rock party was the starting quarterback for the Iowa State Cyclones for the next four years in the Big 12 Conference he led in past completions three years in a row from 2019 to 2021 and he led in passing Arts twice in 2019 and 2021. this is an example of a guy who made the absolute most of the opportunity he was given and that's a common theme with Brock Purdy with Purdy's college career coming to an end in 2021 it was now time to look forward to the 2022 NFL combine players are given what is known as a prospect grade after completing the combine this grade is based on what Scouts think their ceiling is in the NFL here is the official categorization from the NFL players in the sevens are expected to be All Pro type players and you can see how specific the grades get as you get into the sixes and fives Rock Purdy's official Prospect grade after completing the combine was a 5.57 meaning he's expected to be nothing more than an undrafted free agent historically anyone with this grade would be an extremely lucky guy if they're just a third string player their entire career that never gets a single second of playing time the odds of being anything more than that are pretty much impossible in general the quarterback class for the 2022 draft wasn't very strong at all Kenny Pickett was the only QB selected in the first two rounds and it was at pick number 20 with the Pittsburgh Steelers so the Draft starts with round one on April 28 2022 rounds two and three are on April 29th and rounds four five six and seven are broadcasted all day on April 30th and at this point nobody really cares about the draft that much anymore however there is one pick on day three of the NFL draft that is celebrated every year and that that is the very last pick of the seventh round known as Mr Irrelevant every year someone comes onto the stage with the jersey with the number of the pick on the back with the famous Mr Irrelevant nickname on the top instead of a last name it's a cool little draft tradition that the NFL has done for a while just to make the last pick feel a little special while simultaneously insulting him the reason why it's called this is pretty self-explanatory nobody knows who the hell the guy is including the fans of the team that dress him none of the fans care and he'll probably be forgotten about within the next year anyway that's what happened every single year until the 260 second pick of the 2022 NFL Draft when the San Francisco 49ers took Iowa State quarterback Rock Purdy technically at this point Purdy has already defied the odds since he was projected to be an undrafted free agent the next step for him was the pre-season where guys like him get significant playing time in hopes of making the Final Cuts and getting added to the official 53-man roster for the season and once again Purdy made the most of his opportunity in three preseason games Purdy completed 30 out of 49 pass attempts for 346 yards one touchdown and one interception with an 80.8 passer rating these numbers aren't incredible but head coach Kyle Shanahan felt they were good enough to beat Nate sudfeld out for the third string quarterback position for the team Shanahan said in an interview quote I thought Purdy was going to be on our practice squad because we were really happy with Nate but Brock won that job week one of this year's NFL season the 49ers took on the Chicago Bears with second year quarterback Trey Lance getting the start Jimmy Garoppolo as the backup and Brock Purdy as the third Stringer Lance didn't play well in this game going 13 for 28 passing for 164 yards and an interception in the loss but he was still a young quarterback and the 49ers felt he was the future of the franchise so he got to start once again in week 2 versus the Seahawks things were going well in this game until late in the first quarter Lance suffered a pretty gruesome ankle injury was carted off the field and went through season ending surgery to repair the ankle and just like that Jimmy Garoppolo is now the 49er starter with Purdy next in line after Garoppolo finished off the Seattle game for the W things were kind of rough for him as a starter in the beginning as the team went 2-3 in their next five games after this but week 8 is where things turned around for San Francisco they beat the Rams had a Buy in week 9 beat the Chargers in week 10 blew out the Cardinals in week 11 and shut out the Saints in week 12. their record is now 7-4 heading into a game versus the Miami Dolphins when in their first drive of the game Jimmy Garoppolo got sacked on this play which broke his foot sidelining him for the remainder of the Season as well which means the next quarterback to take the field for the 49ers is Mr Irrelevant Rock Purdy everything that Purdy has gone through from a high schooler in Arizona to a breakout quarterback for Iowa State to a low combine grade to the last pick in the draft to beating out Nate sudfeld for the final quarterback spot has led up to this moment Purdy finished this game completing 25 out of 37 passes with 210 yards two touchdowns and an 88.8 rating winning the 49ers fifth game in a row and making them 8-4 Brock Purdy's story could have ended here and it still would have gone down as one of the greatest Underdog stories ever but luckily for us it didn't Rock Purdy is now the starting quarterback of a playoff team set to face the greatest quarterback of all time Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucks in week 14 for his first NFL start as a 22 year old rookie you can't write a better script than that in this game Brock Purdy played his role to absolute perfection completing 16 out of 21 passes for 186 yards two touchdowns zero interceptions plus a rushing touchdown and a rating of 134 destroying the Bucks 35-7 49ers fan and started chanting Purdy's name as cameras showed his father getting emotional in the seats Purdy got the start again yesterday versus the Seahawks on the road and again played really good he completed 17 out of 26 pass attempts for 217 yards two touchdowns zero interceptions and finished with a 117 rating in the 49ers seventh win in a row which clinched the division this means the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft will be the starting quarterback for a playoff team in his rookie season what's happening right now is something we've never seen before and probably won't ever see again Brock Purdy is the underdog of all underdogs he is America's quarterback he is Mr relevant and he will forever be remembered as having one of the most inspirational stories that Sports has ever seen that wraps this one up this is the longest video I've ever made on this channel and a lot of work went into it so please leave a like And subscribe to the channel if you're new thank you for watching and as always I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: The WAR Room

Views: 281,534

Keywords: NFL, Sports, Football

Id: L4l5JO1kpKg

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2022