Colin Cowherd Explains Brock Purdy's 'Superpower'

Over the last few years, various national commentators and analysts have found seemingly every excuse in the book to refuse to give San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy his due. The narrative was always that he put up strong numbers only because of the star players around him and the brilliance of head coach Kyle Shanahan.

But now that the 49ers are 5-0 despite many injuries to key players and Purdy is playing MVP-level football, that narrative has shifted. All of a sudden, America is waking up to something that has been true for a while: Purdy is a very high-level quarterback who has special qualities.

He isn’t athletically impressive by NFL standards, and while he is mobile and can make plays with his arm and his legs on the run, he isn’t a true dual-threat quarterback. But he is impressive in one other area that probably matters more.

The “green flag” that Purdy has always possessed

Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports 1 is one talking head who has parroted the claims that Purdy is vastly overrated over the last few years. But this year, Cowherd has changed his tune. On Monday’s edition of “The Herd w/ Colin Cowherd,” he not only admitted that Purdy is a co-favorite for the MVP award along with the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, but also that the Niners’ captain has a “superpower” that isn’t common.

“Everybody is trying to find a quarterback,” Cowherd said. “Don’t you think it’s kind of crazy that the current MVP co-favorite is Brock Purdy, the last player taken in a draft? Why is that?

“Number one, the league is very situational — where you get drafted, who your coach is, who your left tackle (is), (who your) weapons are… The second thing is, a lot of quarterback success is based on things you can’t measure at a combine. Toughness. EQ. Leadership. Processing.

“So I have always looked for two flags. One’s a red flag, one’s a green flag. The first thing I’ve always looked at is a superpower. A wow trait, because this is a crisis league. What is the superpower in crisis that you’ll turn a loss to a win? Purdy’s — it took us a few years to hear the stories — is above the shoulders. They say he is the great processor in the league. [Kyle] Shanahan, Sam Darnold — they’ve never seen anybody process more information more quickly.”

Purdy is able not only to make quick reads, especially when he is being blitzed, but also to make the correct reads and get rid of the football quickly. This season, he also seems to be taking fewer risks than in the past. Instead of taking shots down the field when nothing is clearly available, he’s throwing the ball away to avoid a loss of yardage.

Cowherd also praised Purdy for lacking a key negative trait that some QBs unfortunately do have.

“The other flag I look for is a red flag,” Cowherd said. “… I’ve been right virtually every time. The red flag is immaturity. Are you distracted? Are you really not over yourself yet? Do you do too many commercials early? … How is your judgment? … I never saw any of the red flag immaturity stuff (with Purdy).”

Off the field, Purdy is low-key. As Cowherd alluded to, he doesn’t draw attention to himself, he doesn’t promote himself and he doesn’t talk about how great he is (or how great he thinks he is).

All he does is play high-level football, and this season, he’s playing at his highest level yet. Through five games, he has completed 69% of his passing attempts and thrown for 1,196 yards and 13 touchdowns while throwing just two interceptions. He leads everyone in touchdown passes and QBR (84.0), and he’s second in passer rating at 119.3, which is just 0.3 below Lamar Jackson.

If the Niners get healthier and avoid further injuries to their key players, and especially if they pick up a reinforcement or two in the coming weeks, perhaps Purdy will pick up something that will forever silence his critics: a Super Bowl championship ring.