Brock Purdy came close to completing a Cinderella story in 2024, but Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs stood on the San Francisco 49ers‘ way. The third-year quarterback, however, is determined to coming back stronger this year. And he’s inspiring on none other than Tom Brady to do so.
“With as good of a team that we have, I want to get to that point where we get to the third quarter, there’s a couple of drives that are crucial, I’m on top of my stuff, we convert on third downs, and we score touchdowns and the lead just gets out of hand,” Purdy told Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s having that Tom Brady kind of feeling. Late in the game, it always felt like Tom was just gonna take over and not make it close. I feel like I can get to that.”
Brady is the greatest example of an underdog story not only in NFL but probably in sports history, having become the most successful quarterback of all time against all odds. Selected with the 199th pick in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, the expectations around him were not big when he joined the New England Patriots.
Purdy wants to defy the odds like Brady did to dominate over Mahomes
But eventually, Brady proved his doubters completely wrong. Purdy can relate to the feeling of being underestimated as a rookie, as he was “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 2022 NFL Draft by joining the Niners with the final pick of the draft.
It didn’t take long for Purdy to prove he’s actually relevant, leading the 49ers all the way to the NFC Championship Game in his rookie year as Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo suffered season-ending injuries.
With the starting job under his belt for his second year, Purdy went a step further by guiding San Francisco to the Super Bowl. Even though his performance was decent, Mahomes gained the upper hand with an amazing drive at the end.
Now, Purdy wants to build on his growth to reach new heights in the NFL. Just like Brady managed to dominate the league back in the day, the 49ers QB aims to become an even better version of himself to rule in the NFL.
“I want to be dominant,” Purdy said. “Not just win games and feel like, ‘Eh.’ I want to be dominant with consistent decisions and [feel] like we’re the top dogs every day. … There were moments last year in games where I would just — I don’t know what it was in the situation — but we’d be up and it’s, ‘All right, be smart with the ball,’ or ‘Let’s just make sure we don’t mess up.’ I want to break through that and get to this point of just being dominant, for four quarters, man. That’s my mindset.”