He was “Mr. Irrelevant.” He was pick number 262. He was torn apart by everybody, from draft pundits to Nick Saban. But Brock Purdy didn’t let that beat him down. Defying the odds, Purdy fought his way through a training camp battle for QB3 – the backup’s backup. The odds were slim he’d ever see the field outside of victory formation, let alone start. But when disaster struck, Purdy stared it in the face. He made himself relevant.
Of course, we do have to acknowledge that Purdy is a puppet. He’s shiny, and can make all the right throws, but at the end of the day, he’s a marionette. Kyle Shanahan is the one pulling the strings. This is not to discount Purdy – he’s done incredibly well. But it seems – for lack of a better word – easy to succeed in San Francisco. Which makes sense. Shanahan has sculpted a system that went to the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garroppolo. The strategy? Fill an offense with dual threat playmakers that it doesn’t matter – to an extent – who’s under center. Then factor in the bells and whistles.
Now, this is a NFC North website, and you may rightfully be asking why I’m writing about the San Francisco 49ers. Purdy is a compelling story, sure. Just maybe not for me. But I think this has value beyond a Cinderella story. It boils down to this: Kyle Shanahan is making the quarterback irrelevant.
Ok, maybe it’s not time to make THAT big a jump yet. However, is it headed that way? If you fill an offense with enough playmakers and you have an offensive genius at the helm, will an elite quarterback really help add all that much?
Here, I’m taking an economic theory and pioneering it for football. I’m calling it diminishing offensive utility. Looking at an offense, each playmaker adds dangerous dimensions to every play. Look at Christian McCaffery. He can play slot receiver in addition to being a home-run hitter at RB and pass-block for his teammates. He’s the total package. However, on each play, the ball can only go to one person. Therefore, when you get more dangerous playmakers you get in one place, their targets and snaps have to come at the expense of somebody else. Every time Lamar Jackson scrambles, the value of Baltimore’s running backs diminishes, since he’s doing their job for them. In essence, the utility a team gets each additional high-level player diminishes. Therefore, when San Francisco has so many great offensive weapons, having a dual threat quarterback wouldn’t add as much. His splash plays would come at the expense of some of the other players.
However, this also applies to the Lions – and their ELITE QB, Jared Goff. After all, a lot of the ways you can describe the Niners can also be used for the Lions. Offensive genius – check (Ben Johnson is back and better than ever). Great offensive weapons – check (Jameson Williams is somehow WR4 right now?). Bells and whistles – check. There’s no reason that we can’t run a Shanahan-esque system here in Detroit, and on some level, we already kind of do. Maybe Jared Goff isn’t “the guy.” But there’s no reason we can’t build a system that has the kind of resiliency that San Francisco has. Adding a quarterback this offseason is potentially a waste of draft position, but also comes at the cost of diminishing the value we’ve already invested into our receiver room. (Bet you didn’t think this would turn into a secret pro-Goff article, did you?)
Make no mistake – finding the next Mahomes is worth its weight in gold. However, what the Lions have with Jared Goff and what the Niners have with Brock Purdy works. The system is built around them, not in spite of them. Football is a team sport, and a quarterback, while valuable, can only push a team so far before becoming, like Purdy was supposed to be, irrelevant.
