Ever since Brock Purdy made his first NFL start against Tom Brady last season, the 49ers quarterback has been compared to the legend because both men were drafted.
As Purdy lights up the league in 2023, the similarities between the two will only become more apparent to some. Brady has been following the 23-year-old’s success and has had nothing but praise for the young signal-caller recently.
“(The 49ers) are doing a great job, I played against him last year and they have a great team,” Brady said on the latest episode of “Let’s Go!” podcast. “I’ve been on a lot of great teams over the years, and what do we do? We control the line of scrimmage, we run the ball well, we stop the run, they rush the passer. They’ve been With the lead, I also give coach (Kyle) Shanahan a lot of credit because he does a great job.
“You don’t hear about guys like Brock Purdy until he does amazing things on the field, so it’s a fun story and I hope he continues that because he Seems like a very humble young man who wants to go out and do great things. I think the more you feel like he has pressure and doesn’t live up to expectations, it’s nice to go out and continue to prove people wrong. “
Brady knows how to prove people wrong. When the New England Patriots selected him with the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, expectations for the sixth-round pick were modest. But he went on to become the epitome of late-round success in professional sports, making 15 Pro Bowls and winning five Super Bowl MVPs with seven championship rings.
Will Purdy follow the same path? The final pick in the 2022 draft has already achieved all the milestones in his young career, with last season’s “Mr. Irrelevant” becoming the only player in NFL history to beat Brady’s fourth in his career debut. Shooting back, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dominated their Week 14 loss. And this season, some believe it could very well be a passing of the torch.
FS1’s Skip Bayless said this week that Purdy is playing like an “early Tom Brady,” and NFL draft expert Todd McShay also sees similarities.
“Early on (for Brady and the Patriots), the first Super Bowl, it’s all about creativity on defense and offense, and I think that’s what Purdy was like last year,” McShay said this week on “The Ryan Russillo Podcast “Said. “Now — I’m not saying he’s Tom Brady — but I’m saying you see the evolution of a guy you drafted late and you’re not sure what you’re going to get out of him. One day you wake up and And then you think, ‘Oh my gosh. This guy is one of the ten best quarterbacks in the league.’ ”
The similarities don’t end there. He said that like Purdy, Brady shared a living space with roommates early in his career, and he viewed the San Francisco star’s decision in that regard as just another reason to support him.
“There’s a lot of hype around a lot of things because of the world of promotions, self-promotion,” Brady said. “He’s kind of low-key, but he just does his job, and I think a lot of people in a lot of different industries can really respect that.
“It’s nice to have someone who shows up every day, puts the team first and does what they’re asked to do, and he does a great job at that. He’s really exceeded a lot of people’s expectations.”
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