Mr Irrelevant stands on the precipice of greatness

By the time Brock Purdy was announced as the last selection of the 2022 NFL draft, most eyes had turned away. So naturally the response to the young quarterback's name being read out at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas was a rather muted one. All the major names drafted in the first and second rounds were already settling in with their new teams. The fanfare surrounding the annual event had subsided, as it always does by then. Almost everyone had moved on. Almost.

A handful of San Francisco 49ers fans attempted to muster up some enthusiasm and excitement. If truth be told though, Purdy was a name that would likely be forgotten in time.

With Jimmy Garrapolo and Trey Lance already on the 49ers roster, Purdy was essentially a "break glass in emergency" pick. He was, after all, Mr Irrelevant, the tag given to the very final selection of the draft every year. It wasn't a vintage year for quarterbacks either, with Pittsburgh Steelers-bound Kenny Pickett being the only quarterback drafted in the first round. And yet every other franchise viewed the talent out of Iowa State as surplus to requirements. It wouldn't have been an outrageous turn of events if Purdy never actually made it on to an NFL field during the regular season.

Just under two years later, the NFL is back in Las Vegas this weekend for the Super Bowl and all eyes will be on Mr Irrelevant as he seeks to bring another Vince Lombardi trophy back to the Bay Area. Only two quarterbacks have previously led the 49ers to Super Bowl glory – Joe Montana and Steve Young – and both of them went on to become Hall of Famers. For a largely overlooked college recruit, Purdy is on the precipice of entering very esteemed company.

It's a phenomenal achievement for any quarterback, not to mention a player that tumbled into the final round of the draft only two years earlier. If he wins, he'll also become the second youngest quarterback to ever lift the famous Vince Lombardi trophy after Ben Roethlisberger.

To scale that mountain, he'll have to overcome a man who has a remarkable ability to sniff out a win like it's a cake just out of a baker's oven, a player whose stock has been rising since the day he first pitched his tent in Missouri. Patrick Mahomes is the league's most prominent superstar for a few years now, so it goes without saying that he's had a very different career arch to Purdy.

It was imminently obvious that Mahomes was a superstar from the moment he stood under center for the Chiefs for the very first time. His first completed pass for the Kansas City Chiefs was a 51-yard gain. That gives you a sense of his approach to the game – he rarely looks for the easy option and tends to see options no other mortal can visualise. And he more often than not pulls it off. He's a maverick.

Although he only received game-time in Week 17 in his rookie season, after starting Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith had already guided the franchise to a playoff spot, the Texas native showed enough in the few weeks after his debut to become the organisation's starting quarterback going forward. They haven't looked back since, appearing in every Super Bowl bar one since 2019.

Rookie quarterbacks are usually a gamble. The quarterback is expected to lead the organisation and the gulf in standard between college football and the NFL is, as you'd expect, immense. Rookie quarterbacks can be skittish, prone to unforced errors and can struggle to recover from confidence-deflating performances. But Mahomes immediately flourished in his new environment and, on his shoulders, carried the Chiefs from being a solid franchise to a feared force. This is the 28-year-old’s seventh season in the league and he's already guided his side to four Super Bowls. Before Mahomes arrived the Chiefs had only been to one Super Bowl, which they won back in 1969.

Another Super Bowl title in the Midwest would confirm beyond all doubt that we're living in the middle of a Chiefs dynasty and the man with the distinctive Mohawk fade is their spiritual leader. Despite making it to yet another Super Bowl, the Chiefs haven't been at their imperious best over the last couple of months. Mahomes has nevertheless dragged them to next Sunday's game like a sheep farmer cajoling a flock of sheep towards a pin. He's already the quarterback of his generation just like Tom Brady was before him, though it took the holder of seven Super Bowl rings longer to grasp that tag. Mahomes is already being talked about as one of the all-time greats, and certainly one of the most naturally gifted, though it must be noted that he's still very young for a quarterback, some of whom are playing into their 40s today.

For some, it's impossible not to already draw comparisons with Brady, the widely regarded best player of all time. Brady was 27, just a year younger than Mahomes, when he won his third Super Bowl ring after all.

But if a comparison is to be drawn with Brady, Purdy should enter the equation. Like the 49ers quarterback, Brady, too, was a forgotten man coming out of college. The recently retired star produced one of the most uninspiring NFL combine performances of all time, running a tortoise-like 5.3 second 40-yard dash. Zimmer frames have moved faster at the sound of a bingo machine. He subsequently fell to 199th place in the 2000 draft.

But what the combine didn't uncover was Brady's ability to produce a big play under pressure when a game was on the line. Over the next two decades he became Mr Clutch. It wasn't until Brady began lining up Super Bowl rings on his hand that a consensus was reached on the fact that Brady's temperament more than made up for his lack of athleticism.

Purdy, similarly, isn't receiving the love from all quarters. For many, he's simply a cog in an uber-efficient system ran by head coach Kyle Shanahan. He looks good, it's felt, as he's surrounded by sensational talents like Christian McCaffrey, George Kettle, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel in the 49ers offence.

But facts are oblivious to public sentiment and those facts stack up in Purdy's favour. He's answered everything expected of him and is heading to his first Super Bowl in only his second season. To silence the remaining doubters he'll need to do what only Brady has managed so far – defeating the league's best player in the only game that matters.