Turns out Matt Rhule had a strong interest in drafting Brock Purdy while he was Head Coach of the Panthers.
"When I was in the draft room at Carolina, I brought his name up. I said he should be on the draft board. I got vetoed on that one."#SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/Fqr3LJfMRr
— Matt Foster (@MattFosterTV) February 7, 2024
Sure, Matt.
This probably won’t be the first time a coach talks about how he wanted his team to select Brock Purdy in the 2022 draft, and it will only happen more as Purdy has more success in the NFL.
Unfortunately for Rhule it’s unlikely that even Purdy could’ve saved his iteration of the Carolina Panthers. Rhule, now the head coach at the University of Nebraska, went 11-27 in two-plus years as the head coach in Carolina. The club signed Teddy Bridgewater to take the 2020 season, and then traded for Sam Darnold to navigate the 2021 campaign before adding Baker Mayfield ahead of the 2022 season.
None of those QBs played particularly well under Rhule, and Mayfield just got done taking the Buccaneers to the playoffs. The idea that Purdy would’ve bailed out a disastrous Panthers team seems low given what we saw their other QBs do during the Rhule era.
If Rhule was telling the truth though, it says a lot about what the Panthers thought of him as an offensive coach that they wouldn’t let him snag a QB he liked with a late-round pick.
Coincidentally it was a 37-15 Week 5 loss to the 49ers that ended the coach’s tenure with the Panthers. That was the same game Purdy made his NFL debut, taking a kneel down to end the game, and perhaps Rhule’s NFL career.
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