Brock Purdy is a name that has been known across college football for the past four years. Purdy has been the starting quarterback at Iowa State since October of 2018 and is the definition of an experienced quarterback. While he has led the comeback of the Iowa State football program, Purdy has gotten ridiculed by the media for his play at times, and he does not have much hype in this year’s draft. Being a good college starter has taken Purdy a long way, but we’ll see if his game can translate to the NFL.
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Player Bio
Name: Brock Purdy
Jersey: No. 15
Position: Quarterback
School: Iowa State
Class: Senior
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 220 lbs
Games Watched: Oregon (2020), West Virginia (2020) Texas (2021), Baylor (2021), Iowa (2021)
Major Injury History: None
Arm Talent (10.25/15)
Purdy’s arm talent is nothing special but is serviceable. He can fire it into some windows in the short and intermediate areas of the field. In the deeper areas, however, there’s nothing too much there. Purdy rarely takes the deep shot, and when he does, he certainly doesn’t get it down there with pace. In the NFL, Purdy will continue to have average arm talent.
Accuracy (11/15)
Accuracy is another trait where Purdy has had some success in college. Unfortunately, there isn’t much optimism for it to continue at the next level. Purdy’s biggest miss is high. This can be due to mechanics and just speeding things up at times. The deeper you go down the field, the worse it gets, but there have also been nice flashes from Purdy here that make you think he can potentially make something out of his accuracy in the NFL.
Decision Making (11/15)
The college football world created a bit of a meme over Purdy’s decision-making this past season. There have been plenty of extremely questionable decisions by Purdy. There are some good decisions once you look past the lowlights. There are some good and lots of bad here, including some annoyingly forced throws, and this trait is once again average.
Progressions (8/10)
Now, it gets better. Purdy has shown he can get through his progressions often. Purdy won’t make it to his fourth and fifth read often, but he constantly can get to his third read, and you can see his eyes scanning the field. Weaknesses, like most quarterbacks, come from him honing in on one read, but it’s mostly pretty good here.
Pocket Awareness (7.5/10)
This was the most surprising. Purdy has solid pocket awareness. There were plenty of times when Iowa State’s offensive line broke down on him. Purdy could sense the pocket collapsing and escape it and make a play. Purdy demonstrated this in every game, even in his worst, and it is an extremely promising trait. Purdy is poised most times and can also rush to make plays outside the pocket.
Anticipation/ Touch (8/10)
We have the most flashes out of any trait with anticipation/touch but still many inconsistencies. Purdy’s touch was best against Texas. He had a beautiful throw on a seem route to fit the ball to a tight end. Time and time again in this game, Purdy was able to float the ball over the linebackers nicely as well. Then, there are some rough moments. In almost every game, he would float the ball too much. This would lead to a ton of jump ball and even interceptions. Other times, the ball is thrown early or late, and it’s clear that he needs to be more polished here.
Out of Structure (6.75/10)
Purdy has done well to escape the pocket. After he escapes the pocket, his play falters. The miss, as we’ve mentioned, is always high. The perfect way to describe this was one play in the first quarter against Texas. He made an incredible scrambling play, had a man open on the run in the endzone, and threw an absolute mallard. There have still been some good throws but inconsistencies galore.
Mobility (7.75/10)
Purdy’s mobility is the most underrated trait he has. This guy can move out in space and does a great job avoiding tacklers. We’ve seen read options aplenty at Iowa State, and tons of other designed quarterback runs for Purdy. He’s not some Lamar Jackson-type runner, but Purdy can potentially be a gadget quarterback in the NFL early on because of his ability to carry the football.
Mechanics (4/5)
Some have considered Purdy’s mechanics to be best in class, but the majority of the jury is torn. He has a pretty nice upper base and standard speed on his release timing. The ball doesn’t necessarily snap out of his hand, but there’s some good potential in the upper body. The problem comes when he releases the ball too far back, causing a missed and inaccurate throw. When discussing the lower body, it is clean, but he does tend to fade back a little too much, which has led to all of his misses.
Player Summary
Purdy is a player who’s gotten too much hate around draft media but still isn’t a quarterback who is going to amaze at the next level. There are a ton of underrated qualities in Purdy’s play. On the other hand, the inconsistencies are a little too much to be worth drafting early or even mid-Day 2. Purdy will most likely be a Day 3 pickup, and he should, but the possibility of being a gadget guy could intrigue some teams. Overall, this experienced quarterback has the traits to make a successful career as a backup in this league but shouldn’t be a full-time starter anytime soon.
Rookie Projection: Developmental/Gadget Quarterback
Third-Year Projection: Backup/Gadget Quarterback
Final Grade: (74.5/100): Fourth Round
Player Comp: Gardner Minshew
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