Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton had an interesting take this week about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. Newton called Purdy a game manager and not a game-changer. He also said if you look at the entire roster, Purdy is probably the 10th-best player on the team.
This has everyone up in the air, but it got me thinking about the quarterbacks in the playoffs this year and whether Newton’s words can apply to the Pittsburgh Steelers and QB Kenny Pickett.
If you look at the other teams in the playoffs, it is striking how many of them have their starting quarterback as their best player. Guys like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jared Goff, C.J. Stroud, Jordan Love and Baker Mayfield are all either the top players on their team or in the top three.
But you can’t say this about Pickett. He definitely falls more in the Purdy range. We see Purdy in the Super Bowl against Mahomes, who is definitely the best player on his team, at a minimum on the offensive side of the ball. It will be something to watch if the game manager can beat the game-changer in the one game that matters the most.
