The Chicago Bears have the first pick in the upcoming National Football League draft after compiling the worst record in the league. It is almost tough to remember that they opened their win starved season with a victory over … wait for it, the San Francisco 49ers.
We are a long way from the 49ers losing to the Bears on opening day, the Denver Broncos two weeks later and to the Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs on successive weeks in October. San Francisco is also a long way from that pedestrian start to their 2022 season … they haven’t lost since that midseason setback to the Chiefs at Levi’s Stadium.
The 49ers are also on their third quarterback, a guy selected with the last pick in the 2022 draft, or as it is known around the league, Mr. Irrelevant. That quarterback choice is a long way from irrelevant now, as he is playing so well the team does not seem to embrace the need of rushing one-time starter Jimmy Garoppolo back into action now that he has recovered from an ankle injury that opened the door for the 49ers surprise phenom.
Who is this young quarterback that has not lost a game as the 49ers starter? Brock Purdy. His stock as a potential draft pick went down because he chose to play all four of his college years at Iowa State before entering the NFL draft. That’s right, we have reached a point where NFL personnel departments view a quarterback that played four years at the collegiate level as inferior to a kid that declares for the draft early.
Nuts, but I will tell you I actually overheard an NFL executive say before last year’s draft, “A quarterback that stays in college for his entire career is probably not a real blue chip candidate. Those guys are coming out after two years, maybe three at the most.”
And for this year’s award for dumbest comment of the year we acknowledge … no, I’m not going to do it, name the lamebrain because he is not alone in that thinking.