Many accuse San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy of being a game manager.
Just like the poster child of game managers, Trent Dilfer. Trent Dilfer had a 55.5% career completion percentage. Trent Dilfer threw for 113 career touchdown passes and threw 129 interceptions.
This is the Trent Dilfer who won a Super Bowl despite passing for only 153 yards and completing 48% of his throws. He benefited from having a defense that held their opponent to 152 yards and gave up no points. That defense also returned an interception for a touchdown, while the return team ran a kickoff back for another score. In other words, even if the offense had not scored, Dilfer would have won the Super Bowl.
That's what a game manager looks like.
So Brock Purdy is clearly a game manager. After all, he has a career completion percentage of 68%. He has taken his team to the Super Bowl, where he gave the 49ers two leads that a non-dominant defense could not hold. He has also taken San Francisco to the playoffs in three of his four seasons.
Many point out Brock's lack of athleticism. That was on display against Miami, when he scrambled up the middle 10 yards for a first down. And there was the unathletic scramble for a touchdown to close out the drive. And of course, his ridiculous scramble, faking one player into the air, then avoiding another, before finding Mike Evans 21 yards away.
This is the "dink-and-dunk" Brock Purdy who has led the league in air yards per attempt and air yards per completion.
And this is the supposedly reliant-on-playmakers Brock Purdy who led the 49ers to the playoffs last season, throwing to backup tight ends and backup receivers almost the entire year.
The guy who can't put the team on his back put the team on his back against the Lions in the playoffs for one of the biggest postseason comebacks in franchise history.
As I have written numerous times, Brock Purdy is none of the things his detractors say he is.
And yesterday was wonderful as he demonstrated all of the skills elite quarterbacks have. He threw balls to all areas of the field. He evaded the pass rush to run for first downs and a touchdown, and he avoided it to throw strikes way downfield.
And none of this accounts for his leadership.
Even as a rookie, Purdy commanded the huddle. Veterans marveled that a third-string, seventh-round, scout-team rookie quarterback would tell someone in the huddle to focus and unwedge his head from the unpopular orifice.
Forty-Niners superstar Fred Warner has called Purdy "a baller."
That's what Brock is. And that is what the great quarterbacks are.
More info on: Mike Evans, Brock Purdy, Fred Warner
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