The draft is done. Free agency has quieted. The schedule is on the way. It’s time to look ahead in the NFL, with training camps and the 2024 season next to approach. So let’s unpack a little Friday notebook, with some new and lingering thoughts on spicy quarterback situations and a potential sleeper for the new year:
Have we not learned our Mr. Irrelevant lesson?
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We dropped our first post-draft edition of 2024 Quarterback Power Rankings this week, and easily the most divisive choice was slotting Brock Purdy at No. 2, behind only Patrick Mahomes. Let me start by saying these pecking orders never satisfy everyone, and that makes total sense, because it all depends on your criteria. If I’m starting an NFL team tomorrow, for example, of course I’d rather have the physical gifts of, say, Josh Allen. And, yes, maybe Kyle Shanahan would rather have Josh Allen as the San Francisco 49ers‘ quarterback. Imagine what a signal-caller like Allen might do there, with all those weapons and all that favorable scheming.
And to that, I say: Look at what Purdy has already done there. Everyone can claim they’re tired of Purdy’s “Mr. Irrelevant” label, but it seems there is still a sizable faction of folks who believe, consciously or not, that Purdy is still irrelevant, at least in the elite-quarterback conversation, for the simple reason he plays for a good team. Comparing him to Jimmy Garoppolo or other Shanahan products also holds only so much weight, because Garoppolo was never this efficient, this mobile, this resilient, this durable, especially at such an early stage of his career. Would Purdy be who he is if he started with the Houston Texans? Maybe not. But he can’t control that. He is who he is, and unlike the Allens and Lamar Jacksons of the world, he’s already had a real hand in his club reaching the ultimate stage.
What more do fans want from Purdy? Fifty touchdowns instead of 31? An 80% completion rate instead of 69%? Two rings instead of two NFC title-game appearances in two NFL seasons? A trade request from the 49ers, so he can prove he’s not solely a byproduct of the Shanahan system? I get the arguments. I, too, believe others may have more transcendent skill sets. But it’s not like Purdy is some flat-footed pocket statue, either. He makes plays…
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