NFL executive's comments prove the league still isn't taking 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy seriously

Brock Purdy's resume heading into his third season in the league is sparkling.

The San Francisco 49ers quarterback is 17-4 as a starter in the regular season, has four playoff wins to his name and last season broke the franchise record for single-season passing yardage while also leading NFL in touchdown percentage, passer rating, QBR and every yards per attempt metric as he and the Niners went within a play of winning the Super Bowl.

Yet there are still some in the league who seemingly don't take Purdy seriously.

Purdy just missed out on a place on ESPN's list of the top 10 quarterbacks in the league, compiled by polling NFL coaches, executives and scouts.

That he was limited to being a honorable mention is not some huge slight against Purdy. After all, he has only started one full season in the league, so it would be fair if some still want to see him maintain the remarkable start to his career over a larger sample size.

But the critique from an NFL executive in the ESPN piece put together by Jeremy Fowler is one that makes little sense.

"He's very good at navigating the pocket, buying time, using his legs -- you're not going to win because of him in most cases," an NFC executive was quoted as saying. "He's a really good system quarterback."

The narrative that Purdy is a 'system quarterback' is a tired one, and the executive's reliance on it in this instance runs contradictory to the attributes for which they praised the Niners' signal-caller, traits that have nothing to do with the system.

Purdy does run the Kyle Shanahan system to an extremely high level, but he has also added new dimensions to it with his playmaking ability with his legs and his underrated deep-ball prowess. He was the highest-graded deep thrower in the league last season.

And, as another NFC executive quoted for the piece correctly alluded to, Purdy used his playmaking ability with his legs to help author two postseason comebacks during the 49ers' run to the Super Bowl.

"It's hard to call him top 10 based on the guys ahead of him, but it's hard to keep him out of the top 10, too," the other NFC executive said. "He willed that team to the Super Bowl. Only right to give him serious consideration."

Purdy did indeed will the Niners to the Super Bowl, orchestrating comebacks against the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in large part through his ability to make things happen out of structure.

Those were not the performances of a 'system quarterback', but it appears the mountain of evidence pointing to him being much more than a point and shoot quarterback in the Shanahan offense isn't enough to convince some in the league just yet.

With the benefit of a full offseason , something he did not have last year, Purdy will simply have to go out and prove himself all over again. His track record says he'll be up to that challenge.

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