We all know that finding a franchise quartback is one of, if not the hardest job in all of football. Everyone tends to look at the high prospects. Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniel's are all no doubt exceptional athletes and look to have promising futures in the NFL. But, these high prospects don't always pan out. And there seems to be one late round prospect who seems to come out of nowhere and end up being on of the best quarterbacks in the league.
It happened 24 years ago with Tom Brady. Brady was drafted to the New England Patriots back in 2000 with the 199th overall pick in the draft. And we all know how that turned out. And now it seems like it could have happened again with Brock Purdy. Brock was drafted a couple of years ago out of Iowa State to the 49ers with the very last pick. Purdy had a very average College career but has quickly become one of the best Quarterbacks in the league.
Now looking ahead, a question that seems to be on my mind is, who could be the next Brock Purdy? And my answer is a guy who no one seems to be talking about.
Brock Purdy
Purdy had a very decent college career where he ended up with a record of 29-17 and threw for a total of 12,170 yards, 81 touchdowns and 33 interceptions.
Even though Brock had a mid college career, that obviously hasn't been the case in the NFL.
Purdy was drafted as Mr. Irrelevant back in 2022 to the 49ers. Like his college career started, Purdy started off the season as the teams 3rd string QB sitting behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Goroppolo. Lance would only play in 2 games that season after suffering a season ending injury week 2. And then Purdy didn't play until week 13 where Goroppolo would also ended up getting injured. Purdy would come into the game in the first quarter and proved to be very efficient completing 25-37 passes for 210 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Purdy would start the rest of the season where he would lead the 49ers all the way to the NFC Championship game only to get injured in that game and the 49ers would end up losing.
The following season, Purdy would end up being named the starter after a successful offseason of rehabbing and would ultimately lead the 9ers all the way to the Super Bowl only to fall short losing the the Kansas City Chiefs 25-22 in OT.
Purdy finished the season with a very impressive statline of over 4,000 passing yards, 31 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions.
Sam Hartman
Like Purdy, Sam had a solid but average college career. He started off as the starter for Wake Forest back in 2018. He ended that year with a statline of 55.3 completion pct, 1984 passing yards, 16 tds to 8 interceptions and led wakeforest to a 4-5 record.
The following year he would lose the starting job to Jamie Newman and only started one game. He would end up redshirting. But then he would regain the starting job in 2020 where he would also go 4-5, with roughly 2,200 passing yards and only 13 tds.
But then in 2021, that's where it seemed to look good for Hartman. He would lead the Deamon Decons to a school history best 8-0 start and finished that year 11-3 record where he threw for 4,228 yards, and 39 tds, which both ended up being Wake Forest single season records.
And in 2022 he picked up where he left off playing in 12 games throwing for 3,700 yards and 38 tds.
Sam Hartman would end up transferring to Notre Dame for his final season where they would go 9-3 that season while Hartman would throw for a decent 2,689 yards, and a 24-8 Td/Int ratio.
Because this is such a Quarterback heavy class, everyone seems to be looking past Hartman. But I wouldn't. He at least could make a very good backup and could end up thriving in the NFL if he ends up with the right team.
Teams such as the Jets should consider drafting Hartman on Day 3. With Rodger's coming back for at least 2 more years, Hartman could sit back and learn from the future hall of famer and then go in and be the guy for the next 10-15 years. And possibly following in the footsteps of Brock Purdy.
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