For the first time in NFL history in the post season we are going to see a matchup in which both quarterbacks for opposing teams will have very different paths to starting, specifically one being the first overall pick in the draft and the other being the last overall pick.
This weeks NFC Championship features both the first overall pick and last pick of different drafts at the quarterback position. Jared Goff being the first who leads the Detroit Lions and Brock Purdy being the last pick for the San Francisco 49ers. While this game may be favored to the last overall pick, it is quite a poetic story for this to happen to each of these quarterbacks.
NFL, Jared Goff Story As Number 1 Overall Pick
Jared Goff has had a resurrection with the Detroit Lions after being the number one overall pick selected by the Los Angeles Rams back in 2016. While Goff had a great few seasons with the Rams and even made it a Super Bowl the Rams moved off from him for Matthew Stafford and ended up winning the Super Bowl.
Goff lead one of the most spectacular offenses the NFL has ever seen with the Rams, and was looked at as a proper number one overall pick as a franchise quarterback. Goff led them to a Super Bowl where they came up short 13-3 to the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, and because they barely were able to score in that game, Sean McVay felt like they had to upgrade at quarterback and traded him off to the Lions.
Now he has resurrected himself with Detroit and has them in their first NFC championship in 32 years. He along with Dan Campbell and company have the chance to do something no Lions team has done in a lifetime. Even though he is the number one pick he will go into this game as the underdog with most people thinking that he cannot win this game.
Brock Purdy Mr. Irrelevant
Brock Purdy was selected 262nd as the last pick of the entire draft in 2022 and most of us only know that because the San Francisco 49ers lost two quarterbacks to injury for Brock to get the chance to prove himself. We know he has the makings of something special as he has done nothing but win at an incredible rate whenever he is in the lineup as a starter. He will now go back to the NFC championship where he got injured a year ago, to make things right and get this team to the Super Bowl.
Mr. Irrelevant is the nickname given to the last overall pick, and even though Brock is favored to win and has won the far majority of his games so far, there are many doubters that he can be the guy to lead this team to the promised land. That is usually what a guy drafted late in the draft gets because we do not like to think that NFL coaches and GMs would let such a good quarterback fall so late in the draft.
Thankfully there is already proof that one of the greatest can come from very late in the draft in the greatest himself Tom Brady. Brock seems to have many of the same narratives that the Brady haters had in the early 2000s that he is just a game manager. Brock will look to take down a number one overall pick this week and get to the Super Bowl. He will always have an uphill climb in getting the respect he deserves but as long as you win, no one can say anything.