Midway through the 2022 season, injuries forced the San Francisco 49ers to turn to rookie Brock Purdy, a seventh-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, as the team’s starting quarterback.
Fast forward to now, and no one could have anticipated the amount of success that Purdy has been able to experience as the 49ers starting signal-caller.
His latest accomplishment came on Saturday night when he helped lead San Francisco to a divisional-round playoff win over the Green Bay Packers.
Purdy led the 49ers on a game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter of the matchup, and after Saturday’s victory, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan commented on his young quarterback’s clutch performance (via Around The NFL on Twitter).
“Brock, he made some big plays in this game. Missed a couple, but leading us down on our last drive and getting the win, that’s all I can ask for.”
Kyle Shanahan on Brock Purdy leading game-winning drive: “That’s all I can ask for”https://t.co/h1peDuhVxV pic.twitter.com/Tr6o7UtLMX
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) January 21, 2024
Purdy only completed 59 percent of his passes on Saturday, so it certainly wasn’t the greatest performance of his young NFL career.
Still, he managed to come up big when Shanahan and his San Francisco teammates needed him the most on Saturday night, and now the 49ers will host next week’s NFC Championship against either the Detroit Lions or Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Earlier this season, Purdy was viewed by some as a potential MVP candidate, as he was playing at a high level, and San Francisco began their schedule with five wins in a row.
Eventually, that MVP chatter died down a bit as he and the 49ers came back down to earth, but Purdy proved on Saturday that he should still be regarded as one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL right now, at the very least.
San Francisco and their young quarterback will look to continue their success when they take the field next weekend with a Super Bowl bid on the line.
The post Kyle Shanahan Reacts To Brock Purdy’s Game-Winning Drive appeared first on The Cold Wire.