How Brock Purdy prepared for the NFL draft with Sage Rosenfels — by watching the 49ers

Brock Purdy just finished the most accomplished career for a quarterback in Iowa State history. His name stood atop categories across the Cyclone record book, and the four-year starter had helmed the most successful run in program history.

Still, he wasn’t much of an NFL prospect.

So to prepare for the draft, he went to Jacksonville, to work with throwing coach Will Hewlett and another familiar face.

“Brock and I probably had five sessions that were two-and-a-half to three hours long apiece, just watching NFL film,” said Sage Rosenfels, the former Iowa State star, eight-year NFL veteran and QB Collective coach.

One of the teams the pair of former Cyclones spent the most time studying was the San Francisco 49ers, the franchise running some of the most respected offensive concepts in the NFL under coach Kyle Shanahan. It's also the team that ultimately selected Purdy with the draft’s final pick, and then turned to him for a magical, undefeated seven-game run that has them in Sunday's NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

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“I truly don’t think I could have thought of a better situation for him,” Rosenfels told the Register this week. “No. 1 defense, a whole bunch of playmakers on offense, one of the best offensive minds in football."

Purdy has gone from Mr. Irrelevant to third-stringer to the toast of the NFL as the 49ers starter and has them on the doorstep of the game’s biggest stage.

“When he first started out, he got such few reps because of how much reps we were giving to (starter) Trey (Lance),” Shanahan told reporters this week, “but every time (Purdy) got his one or two reps in practice, just how decisive he was and got the ball to the right spot and did it aggressively. Never seemed unsure of anything, and so he kept earning more reps and the more reps we gave him the more he continued to look the same and didn’t take any steps back and then he carried it over to some of the preseason games.

“So by the end of that it was pretty easy to see how Brock was coming and we knew we wanted to keep him on the roster and not risk him going to practice squad, so it was a decision we had to make.”

It was a fortuitous decision after injuries ended the season for Lance, the third overall pick in the 2021 draft, and backup Jimmy Garoppolo. So, too, was the 49ers' choice to snag Purdy with a draft pick that usually produces a punchline rather than production.

For Rosenfels, though, Purdy’s ability to contribute in the NFL was apparent back in 2018 when he took over the Cyclones' offense after just a few months on campus.

“You don’t see a lot of true freshmen in college be really accurate and be unflappable without getting nervous or having the moment feel too big for them,” Rosenfels said. “Almost every true freshman struggles in college football, and the ones that don’t usually have a special psyche about them. He was already extremely accurate. Those are the most important things to become an NFL quarterback, in my opinion, is accuracy and a mindset that I think Brock has.”

What Purdy didn’t have, though, was the measurables as a 6-foot quarterback without a big arm or elite athleticism.

“General managers and head coaches and owners, they don’t like taking chances on guys that are 6 foot and under very much, unless you just have an extreme amount of upside,” Rosenfels said. “And Brock doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have a huge arm. He’s not super fast. You start checking these boxes and you look at Brock’s physical resume and there’s boxes that are unchecked.”

What’s unchecked now for Purdy is the loss column.

Purdy has thrown for 1,374 yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 67.1% of his passes during what may be the most remarkable run for a rookie quarterback in NFL history.

“What I’ve seen is a lot (of) what I saw at Iowa State – great accuracy, playmaking ability,” Rosenfels said. “He’s moving around the pocket, not getting razzled. I’m seeing a quarterback who occasionally throws the ball in harm’s way. A guy who can run the RPOs, get the ball to his playmakers.

“His accuracy and playmaking skills are still there.”

So, too, is Purdy’s charisma and passion for the game that won over his teammates and fans at Iowa State.

“If you have that love and that drive to play this game that you’ve been playing since you were a kid,” Purdy told reporters last week, “I think it helps you set yourself up for success because you love it and you’re willing to do what it takes to make yourself better, make the people around you better, to win and have that will to win.

“That’s something that I think I’ve always had, I love the game, I love competing, I love making a big play and having the crowd go crazy and, there’s that thing in me that you just want to win. You want to have all those other guys on the field celebrate with you for doing something good, so whatever that takes, if that’s extra studying, extra film hours, extra time in the weight room, whatever.

That type of preparation has met the perfect situation.

“I don’t know how I could have drawn up a better spot for him to go to,” Rosenfels said. “It’s really a bit of a miracle because there are 32 franchises, and you have no control.

“He went to hands down what I consider is the best franchise for him.”

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Brock Purdy is the toast of the NFL in a 'miracle' situation