Brock Purdy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad 2022 QB Class

Heading into the 2022 NFL draft, everyone knew it wasn't the best year to need a franchise quarterback.

Not only was there no surefire top prospect worthy of consideration for the No. 1 overall pick, but there was a strong possibility that we could see the entire first round come and go without a single signal-caller selected.

The Pittsburgh Steelers prevented that when they chose hometown prospect Kenny Pickett out of Pitt with the 20th overall selection. The next passer didn't come off the board until the third round, when the Atlanta Falcons grabbed Cincinnati's Desmond Ridder. The Tennessee Titans opted for Liberty's Malik Willis in that same round, while Mississippi's Matt Corral snuck into the back end of Day 2 with the Carolina Panthers.

Record-breaker Bailey Zappe from Western Kentucky went to the New England Patriots in the fourth round, and North Carolina's Sam Howell went to the Washington Commanders to start the fifth round. After that, it was South Dakota State's Chris Oladokun to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas State's Skylar Thompson to the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round.

Then, with the last pick in the entire draft, the San Francisco 49ers made Iowa State's Brock Purdy the "Mr. Irrelevant" for 2022.

Just two years later, Purdy and Thompson are the only members of that 2022 quarterback class who are still with the team that originally drafted them.

Pickett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, while Ridder was shipped to the Arizona Cardinals. Willis was traded to the Green Bay Packers this past weekend, and Howell was dealt to the Seattle Seahawks to back up Geno Smith. Corral has bounced between multiple teams, including the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL, since being waived by the Panthers.

Ridder, Corral, Zappe and Oladokun were all waived by their respective teams over the past few days as final roster cuts were made heading into the regular season.

Thompson appears to be sticking as Miami's backup to Tua Tagovailoa.

And then there's Purdy, who was thrust into the starting job late in his rookie season after injuries to veteran starter Jimmy Garoppolo and No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance. The draft-day afterthought became quite relevant at that point, helping lead the 49ers to the NFC title game, during which he suffered a season-ending injury of his own in a disappointing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Garoppolo signed with the Raiders the following offseason, and the 49ers traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys after Purdy won the starting job over him and veteran Sam Darnold. After going 7-1 as a rookie starter in 2022, Purdy went 12-4 in his 16 regular-season starts and led the 49ers to a trip to the Super Bowl, where they fell just short of the Lombardi Trophy against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

So, while the rest of that 2022 quarterback class continues to fight to stay in the league at all, Purdy is tracking for a bank-breaking contract extension from the 49ers next offseason, and should have them back in the Super Bowl hunt this year.

The next time any NFL team thinks about reaching for a subpar quarterback on draft weekend, this group should be a helpful cautionary tale.

And maybe it's time to retire that whole "Mr. Irrelevant" thing.

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