Brock
Purdy.
Brock
Purdy.
Iowa St.· 6'1"· 212 lb· 4.84s 40
"The 262nd and final pick of the draft, a short-armed Iowa State passer with elite anticipation, who led the NFL in passer rating in his first full season and started a Super Bowl."Pre-draft read
A 6-0 5/8, 212-pound pocket quarterback whose game is anticipation, rhythm and accuracy rather than arm strength or athleticism. He ran 4.84 at the combine and has 29-inch arms, numbers at the bottom of the position's physical scale.
What he does is process. He threw for 12,170 yards and 81 touchdowns at Iowa State and completed 71.7 percent as a senior, working from under center and out of play action with clean footwork and a compact release. He layers throws over linebackers and keeps his composure when the pocket collapses. The concerns are real and were the reason he lasted until the last pick: he cannot drive the ball outside the numbers deep, he will not escape a clean rush, and his margin shrinks behind a bad offensive line.
A Shanahan wide zone offense built on under-center play action, defined reads and timing throws that let him distribute instead of carry the offense.
Year 1: developmental third quarterback. Ceiling: a top-ten starter inside a structured offense with real pass-catchers.
A drop-back offense behind a poor line that asks him to hold the ball, win from a muddy pocket and drive the deep out on his own.
He is proof that fit and processing can outrun arm talent when the system is built for him.
Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy 2021 highlights
The senior season that ended with the last pick of the draft.
Brock Purdy versus Oklahoma State, 2021
307 yards and two touchdowns against the eighth-ranked Cowboys.
Brock Purdy's top plays from his 49ers career
From Mr. Irrelevant to a Super Bowl start and a $265 million extension.
Brock Richard Purdy was born in Queen Creek, Arizona and played at Perry High School in Gilbert, where he went 27-13 for a brand-new program and was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Arizona. He was a three-star recruit and committed to Iowa State in February 2018.
He arrived as the third-string quarterback behind Kyle Kempt and Zeb Noland and took the job as a true freshman, going 6-2 as a starter with 2,250 yards, 16 touchdowns and a 169.9 rating in ten games. He started all 13 games in 2019 and threw for 3,982 yards and 27 touchdowns.
In 2020 he and Breece Hall led Iowa State to a 9-3 record, tied for the best in program history, and a ninth-place national ranking, the highest the school had ever reached. He completed 71.7 percent for 3,188 yards as a senior in 2021, including 307 yards and two touchdowns in a win over eighth-ranked Oklahoma State. He left as a three-time All-Big 12 quarterback holding 32 school records, including career completions, percentage, yards, passing touchdowns with 81 and total touchdowns with 100.
- 01
Anticipation
he throws receivers open before the break, which is the single hardest quarterback trait to teach.
- 02
Accuracy
71.7 percent as a senior and 67.7 percent for his career, with ball placement that protects his receivers.
- 03
Pocket poise
his heart rate drops under pressure, a calm that Steve Young later called the reason the draft missed on him.
- 04
Play-action operation
clean under-center footwork and boot-action reads, exactly the mechanics a wide zone offense needs.
- 05
Four-year production
12,170 yards and 81 touchdowns with 46 starts in the Big 12 against real defensive competition.
- 01
Arm strength
he cannot drive the deep out or the back-shoulder throw to the boundary with true NFL velocity.
- 02
Size and length
6-0 5/8 with 29-inch arms, which means throwing lanes close quickly against interior pressure.
- 03
Athleticism
a 4.84 forty and a 27-inch vertical, so he will not create off-schedule when protection breaks down.
- 04
Turnover stretches
33 interceptions in college, with games where he forced throws trying to rescue a broken play.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.84sp50
- Vertical
- 27inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- 7.21sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.45sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Iowa State | 10 | 146 | 220 | 2250 | 16 | 7 |
| 2019 | Iowa State | 13 | 312 | 475 | 3982 | 27 | 9 |
| 2020 | Iowa State | 12 | 243 | 365 | 2750 | 19 | 9 |
| 2021 | Iowa State | 13 | 292 | 407 | 3188 | 19 | 8 |
| Career | — | 48 | 993 | 1467 | 12170 | 81 | 33 |
Season rows sum exactly to the career line of 993 completions on 1,467 attempts for 12,170 yards with 81 touchdowns and 33 interceptions across 48 games and 46 starts, per Sports-Reference including bowls. He also ran 365 times for 1,177 yards and 19 touchdowns, giving him 100 total touchdowns and 32 school records.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A productive starter whose value depends heavily on protection and structure around him.
An accurate rhythm passer who built an MVP career on timing rather than arm strength.
A capable spot starter with the same size limits who never held a job long-term.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
San Francisco took Purdy with pick 262, the final selection of the draft, making him Mr. Irrelevant. A week into training camp, Kyle Shanahan told owner Jed York that the last pick in the draft was already the best quarterback on the roster, while the team stayed committed to Trey Lance. Lance broke his ankle in Week 2, Jimmy Garoppolo went down in Week 13, and Purdy took over. He went 5-0 in his regular-season starts, threw 13 touchdowns against four interceptions with a 107.3 rating, and became the first 49ers rookie quarterback to start and win a playoff game, producing four touchdowns against Seattle before an elbow injury ended his season in the NFC Championship Game. He has been the starter ever since. He led the NFL in passer rating at 113.0 in 2023 with 4,280 yards and 31 touchdowns, made the Pro Bowl and reached Super Bowl LVIII. He signed a five-year, $265 million extension on May 20, 2025, then went 7-2 in nine starts around a toe injury.
Through Week 2 of 2026 he has 51 games, 47 starts, a 32-15 record, 12,177 passing yards, 89 touchdowns, 38 interceptions and a 104.9 career rating. The last pick of the draft became a franchise quarterback, which makes him the single best value selection of the entire class.