At six feet one inch and 220 pounds, Brock Purdy wasn’t built to be a franchise quarterback, or so the NFL seemed to believe. The San Francisco 49ers, however, took a chance on him, selecting him with the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
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Into five seasons, and 1,500 throws later, he has surpassed the Baltimore Ravens superstar Lamar Jackson in one crucial statistic.
“Brock Purdy just became the highest-rated passer in NFL history,” David Lombardi of The San Francisco Standard reported on X. “He also now holds official #1 ranks across numerous QB stats. Purdy has been on a Hall of Fame trajectory since Day 1. Purdy’s first start against Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Bucs was about 1,500 throws ago.”
To be eligible for the passer rating leaderboard, a quarterback needs to have at least 1,500 throws in the NFL, and Purdy completed his throws during the Week 6 game against the Washington Commanders on Monday.
He threw a six-yard pass to four-time Pro Bowler Christian McCaffrey to surpass Jackson and rank first in the stat. While Jackson’s passer rating sits at 102.7, Purdy has a passer rating of 105.4 at the moment.
But even before the game, Purdy was destined to surpass Jackson. With 1,495 total throws before the game and a passer rating of 105.4 already, even if Purdy threw all five of his next attempts as interceptions, he would end up with a passer rating of 103.7, positioning him above Jackson.
But quite the opposite happened, as Purdy completed five of six passes for 51 yards on the 49ers’ opening drive, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end George Kittle 10:53 left in the first quarter.
What makes the achievement more astonishing is the list of stars that Purdy has surpassed, including Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, and former stars Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, and even legend Tom Brady.
“To be honest, I don’t really know,” Purdy said when asked about the feat he was about to achieve on Friday. “Obviously, when you look at your stats and are you efficient with your completions and, I guess, not turning the ball over, throwing touchdowns, things like that. I guess, yeah, your rating of course is going to be good. I guess it’s, yeah, it’s a good thing. But at the same time, I’m not getting done with games going, ‘All right, was my rating at least 100 and something?’”
Purdy continued with the notion that it was possible because he has “great coaches, a great team, dudes that help me be who I am,” and was just “grateful” to be the quarterback of the 49ers.
While Purdy is “grateful” to be the 49ers’ franchise quarterback, they would, in fact, be the ones celebrating the acquisition of one of the most valuable picks, as Purdy has broken franchise records.
Brock “Mr. Irrelevant” Purdy just keeps on breaking records
What Purdy himself doesn’t understand is that he has revolutionized the 49ers, as no other former 49ers quarterback has done. This was proven when Purdy became the leader in completion percentage, passing yards, passing touchdowns, and passer rating among the 49ers’ quarterbacks in the first 50 starts of their career.
Even the 49ers head coach, Kyle Shanahan, had praise for the quarterback, comparing him to Matt Ryan, a four-time Pro Bowler, who also won the 2016 MVP with the Atlanta Falcons, when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator of the team. He also said that many quarterbacks that he’s coached look at stats and try to improve them instead of focusing on the game, but Purdy isn’t like them.
“I think the coolest thing about Brock is he doesn’t even know what goes into the passer rating. He competes so much, and he’ll put himself in harm’s way and throw picks just to give us a chance to get back in it. Brock is such an unselfish player, and he just does what it takes to win. Sometimes that’s being aggressive. Sometimes it’s not. But he plays to win, which is so amazing that he has a rating like that,” Shanahan said.
With Purdy breaking yet another record, the race for the MVP award tightens, with the Buffalo Bills Josh Allen being the favorite alongside Purdy for now.
By the end of the game against the Commanders, Purdy completed 21 of 29 passes for 264 yards and one touchdown.