Last season ended with a Super Bowl in which neither team – the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots – had been expected to participate. Before that, we had a 44-year-old grandfather returning from a four-season layoff to give the Indianapolis Colts unexpected cheer in an otherwise miserable season, while the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars rebounded from bad 2024 seasons to win their divisions. It’s early to state which surprises will be the most fun to recall this time around, but here are four to watch as things progress.
Under an obscure Santa Clara bylaw, we are legally obliged to point out that Purdy has outplayed his status as the last pick in the 2022 draft. But last season, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback was caught up in his team’s horrible injury luck (which continues unabated), missing eight games. Purdy still played well when healthy, but nobody was quite prepared for how good he has been in 2026.
The 49ers are 3-0 despite all the injury hits, and Purdy is the primary reason. He has completed 60 of 83 passes (72.3%) for 789 yards (9.5 yards per attempt), nine touchdowns, one interception, no sacks, and a passer rating of 133.1, which leads the league quite comfortably (in second place is Drew Lock, more on which later). Moreover, Purdy is doing all of this without the superhuman traits attributed to the likes of Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen.
He’s a decent runner, has an above-average arm, and moves well in the pocket, but Purdy is really beating opponents with his mind. He’s reading defenses like they’re first-day third-grade stuff, and his ability to throw with anticipation (“throwing his receivers open” in football parlance) is unmatched. No matter who’s healthy enough to block for him or catch his passes, the big plays are coming in bunches.
It’s why everyone is on the Purdy bandwagon right now, and as long as he can avoid the Substation Curse, that should continue. It’s not just starting quarterbacks who are making things better for their injury-ravaged teams. 2026 has already been a banner year for backups too. The defending champion Seattle Seahawks lost starter Sam Darnold five plays into the new season when he suffered a glute injury.
Backup Drew Lock, who has rarely resembled a starting-level quarterback in an NFL career that goes back to 2019, turned himself into exactly that in Weeks 1 and 2. The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals with Lock, who completed 35 of 48 passes (72.9%) for 422 yards (8.8 YPA), four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a league-high passer rating of 127.3 – yes, even higher than Purdy’s 125.6 through those two games. Darnold returned to the field for Seattle’s Week 3 game against the Washington Commanders, but the Seahawks ran into another example of this phenomenon when they were upended by Marcus Mariota.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
