Brock Purdy gets brutally honest on "being overlooked"

In a media appearance on Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy opened up about being overlooked throughout his career. He appeared on the "Built 4 More" podcast with Denny Thompson and Joby Martin and shared that he is used to being overlooked.

He explained how it felt to constantly be passed over by college and NFL teams.

Purdy said:

"My whole story, dude, has been just being overlooked, you know, not good enough. And, for me, deep down inside, I'm like, I know I can play and compete at this level, this level, this level. And so high school was the case, and then I became a starter, and we went to the state championship, all that."

Purdy was also underrated coming out of high school. He was a three-star recruit in 2018 from Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona, despite putting up impressive numbers and becoming the Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year. In his pre-college football career, he recorded 8,937 passing yards and 107 touchdowns.

Despite the gaudy stats, he only had a few offers, mostly from FCS schools and FBS schools like New Mexico State and UNLV at first. It was because he waited past the early signing window that additional offers from other FBS schools came in. He then had offers from Illinois, Texas A&M, UCF and Kansas, but he ultimately picked the Iowa State Cyclones. Even at Iowa State, Purdy had to bide his time.

"I was the third-string guy, overlooked," Purdy said. "Then I was drafted last. All these people tell me, you’re not good enough, but deep down inside, this whole time, I’m like just wait till you get an opportunity to compete."

Brock Purdy became the 49ers’ starting quarterback despite being the last draft pick in the 2022 NFL draft

After being drafted last as "Mr Irrelevant" in 2022, Brock Purdy has developed into a reliable starting quarterback in the NFL.

Despite a quarterback room with first-round draft pick Trey Lance and high-priced free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, Purdy snatched the starting quarterback position in his rookie season and did not let it go. He has since thrown for 9,518 yards and 64 touchdowns, leading the 49ers to the NFC Championship game in his rookie season and the Super Bowl in the subsequent season.

In just three years, he is arguably already one of the greatest seventh-round picks.