The 49ers have enough confidence in Brock Purdy that they’re going to make him their starting quarterback once he’s recovered from offseason elbow surgery. His eight-ish game sample size as the starter gave the team enough information to believe he can get them over the NFC championship game hump and into the Super Bowl.
While the team may have that level of belief in the final pick of the 2022 draft, other analysts need to see more. That’s why Purdy’s rank at No. 17 in Doug Farrar’s ranking of all 32 starting quarterbacks makes a ton of sense. Here’s what Farrar wrote at Touchdown Wire:
In what was certainly the biggest surprise of the season, Brock Purdy turned being a third string quarterback drafted with the last pick in the draft into a potential starting job for the 49ers going into the season. It was hard to find somebody who played with as much grit and precision as Purdy during that time, and he can continue to develop his skillset further.
For now, Purdy sits in the middle. He was roughly the same as Jimmy Garoppolo last season with a touch more playmaking out of structure and a greater willingness to push the ball into the intermediate and deep areas of the field. Garoppolo regularly sat in the 15-20 range of various QB rankings.
Purdy’s production was that of a higher-ranked QB, but the sample was pretty small. It was enough to put him into the top 20, but not enough to launch him toward the top 10.
This year will be the fulcrum for Purdy’s future ranking. There’s a chance he maintains his upward trajectory and his added playmaking turns him into something better than Garoppolo over the long term and elevates the 49ers offense in a way that propels Purdy up the rankings.
There’s also a chance he regresses and his numbers suffer because of it. That may cause him to dip as he turns into a player who looks more like a late-round pick than a future superstar.
Both scenarios are firmly on the table with Purdy trying to get healthy in time for a Week 1 return. That’s the first box to check. He has to be available. After that it’ll be up to No. 13 to either boost himself up the rankings and at the same time push the 49ers over the hump for their sixth Lombardi Trophy, or tumble down the rankings and have the 49ers in a spot where they continue looking for their franchise QB.
