Patrick Mahomes vs Brock Purdy is the quarterback showdown for this Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. All the analysts have been lauding Mahomes in the playoffs and some of them had Purdy being a true source of stability for the vaunted 49ers offense ever since the regular season itself. But then, others have also had Brock Purdy on their disrespect list. Most of the notable talking heads and even ex-players on network television had very strong opinions on Purdy’s rise.
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A large part of the argument has been around the yards after catching for the 2023-24 season. Brock Purdy has been time and again accused of being a master of yards after catch. Now some argue this in his favour saying that putting the ball at the right place and position is the main job of the QB and if they are getting open fields with the ball, it is equally upon the QB that they throw it perfectly.
While there is this other category of people that have argued that since he is a QB getting a lot of yards through YAC, it means his success is majorly based on the success of his receivers. Well, there’s a new comparison chart doing the rounds on Twitter, and it shows a totally different picture of the whole argument.
Brock Purdy has had more air time, and longer and more efficiently thrown passes which shows that his ball has spent a lot of time in the air before making its way to the receivers.
Analysing Brock Purdy Vs Patrick Mahomes YAC Stats
This means that with higher air time, generally, the QB has had to throw very specific balls. So while Mahomes threw for a lower air time on average, Purdy has had quite the season.
Next up were the YAC stats, and to most people’s dismay, Patrick Mahomes has almost 700 more YAC than Purdy. And when it comes to the efficiency on YAC throws, Purdy is left far behind by his champion senior QB by a lot. For Mahomes’ 63% completion on YAC throws, Purdy could only manage around 49%.
And while Purdy stands 19th in the league in YAC rankings, 2x Super Bowl Champ Patrick Mahomes is on top, numero uno in this category. Along with having a substantially larger chunk of throws to RBs/TEs as compared to Brock Purdy.
This again shows the advantage Mahomes has possessed in the outfield with his RBs, TEs, and WRs getting wide-open fields and him placing the ball perfectly. But now the same argument used for Purdy can be used. And it blatantly shows the hypocrisy of the media. This is not a jibe at the numbers Patrick Mahomes’ has put up to get to the Super Bowl.
His statistics are set in stone and good enough to play in the Las Vegas Super Bowl. But the media which constantly denies Brock Purdy the status of an elite quarterback brings such statistical analysis to reality. Without the suppression of his image in the media, he might’ve already become a household name due to his underdog story.
