NFL Rumors: Vikings 'Heavily Pursued' Brock Purdy Before 49ers Drafted QB in 2022

If only the Minnesota Vikings had a chance to select Brock Purdy in the 2022 NFL draft; perhaps, 261 of them.

ESPN's Kevin Seifert and Nick Wagoner reported Monday the Vikings "heavily pursued" Purdy leading up to the draft. They were targeting him as an undrafted free agent.

Instead, the San Francisco 49ers took him 262nd overall, the very last pick of the draft.

It's one thing to lament the one that got away or attempt to gain a level of retrospective credit when the player in question was a first-round pick or a highly coveted free agent. It's another when the player was a seventh-rounder and "Mr. Irrelevant."

The Vikings had a pair of sixth-round picks and a seventh-rounder they could've used on Purdy in 2022, but they were banking on him not hearing his name called at all.

While that's not an uncommon strategy for teams, there was a straightforward path for Minnesota to land Purdy if the front office thought he was worth it. The Vikings left a door open for the 49ers.

Not to mention, it's anybody's guess as to when Purdy would've seen the field if he's wearing purple and gold.

The Vikings signed Kirk Cousins to an extension in March 2022 ahead of the draft, and the deal basically locked him in as the starter through 2023. Purdy would've been looking at at least two seasons on the bench, and that's assuming Minnesota wouldn't have turned to the 2024 draft or free agency for a different potential successor to Cousins.

"Whether Purdy would have emerged as a starting candidate behind Cousins, who has missed two NFL starts in his career, will never be known," Seifert and Wagoner wrote.

That's obviously true, but recent history allows fans to reach fairly easy conclusion. Purdy is almost certainly an anonymous backup right now if he's on the Vikings, and breaking through that glass ceiling would've been a major challenge.