One list has him fifth behind Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson.
The San Francisco 49ers have gotten some bargains in the NFL draft at various positions. On Thursday, we talked about Frank Gore being the best bargain at running back for the millennium. At quarterback, there’s only one player we all can think of who could be in that conversation: Brock Purdy.
Along with his list of running backs, Eric Edholm did a list of quarterback bargains on NFL.com. He also did tight ends where George Kittle came in third behind Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce (it’s hard to argue that one).
At quarterback? Well, the 49ers don’t have the No. 1 bargain at that position, at least for the millennium. That honor goes to Tom Brady, who was taken by the New England Patriots in the sixth round with the 199th pick. There’s no way Purdy is going to be even in that conversation as early as he is in his career, but maybe he does get there when it’s all said and done. He’ll need a few Super Bowl rings first.
Instead, Purdy is listed at No. 5, which is somewhat unusual.
The title of Mr. Irrelevant, annually awarded to the final player selected in the NFL draft, always felt like something of a backhanded compliment — at least, until Purdy made it much cooler. Taken with pick No. 262 (tied for the latest pick since the seven-round format was introduced in 1994), Purdy was thrown into the mix in December of his rookie year, leading the 49ers to seven straight wins (including two in the playoffs) before suffering a major elbow injury in the 49ers’ NFC Championship Game loss.
Purdy not only recovered from the injury, but he turned in his finest season to date in 2023, finishing fourth in the MVP voting and leading the Niners back to the Super Bowl. They might have lost that game to the Chiefs, but Purdy’s play earned him a new level of respect. Even a down 2024 season didn’t dissuade the franchise from making him one of the 10 highest-paid players in the NFL, at an average of $53 million per year.
Purdy’s body of work remains incomplete and doesn’t stack up next to those of some Hall of Fame-caliber passers drafted in the past 25 years. But none of them were drafted in this range. While we don’t yet know if Purdy will become one of the all-time greats, his impressive résumé, contract extension and surprising draft pedigree make him worthy of inclusion on this list.
I say odd because while one of the players between Brady and Purdy makes sense, two of them I’m a bit puzzled by.
Aaron Rodgers goes to the second round with his 24th overall selection by the Green Bay Packers. There is a little-known story about how he wanted to be a 49er, and when the team selected Alex Smith first overall, Rodgers felt slighted by the team. That’s just some random trivia I’m sure none of you have heard about.
Number three goes to Lamar Jackson, another first-round pick, which, at this point, makes me wonder what we’re doing here with this list. Two first-round picks?
Number four is Russell Wilson, which fits. I know we have enjoyed making jokes at Russell Wilson’s expense in these parts (me especially), but he deserves to be above Purdy, and it really isn’t close.
So Wilson at four and Purdy at five? I don’t know about that.
This is not saying Jackson and Rodgers are bad quarterbacks or anything extreme. We are talking, they were taken in the first round. Edholm makes a good case as to why players like Patrick Mahomes were not on his list (because of trades) or Drew Brees (because he didn’t become Drew Brees until he went to the New Orleans Saints), but I can’t fathom how Rodgers is a bargain of the millennium. Especially when it has been well demonstrated that he did his best work on a stacked Green Bay team, it becomes clear that once attrition took over, he wasn’t able to be the same quarterback in the postseason.
Where’s Jalen Hurts on this list anyway? He’s been to the Super Bowl twice and won one of them. Wasn’t he a second-round pick?
What the hell is happening where I’m advocating Russell Wilson and Jalen Hurts? What is this world coming to?
Criticisms aside, I agree with Edholm’s statement that Purdy’s body of work is incomplete in some sense. If that’s the reason to put him at No. 5, it’s understandable. For Jackson and Rodgers, I feel like they don’t even belong on this list. Yes, Jackson has an incredible story behind him, as some pundits wanted him to switch positions, but he still went in the first round, so one team wasn’t concerned about this.
Where do you put Brock Purdy on draft values of the millennium? Where do you think it will be when he calls it a career?