Examining the Major Miami Dolphins Purdy What-If and the Important Lesson He Should Offer

The Miami Dolphins will face the San Francisco 49ers one day after another full slate of college football action that will have a good number of the team's fans envisioning one of the quarterbacks in action coming board next year.

The game at Levi's Stadium very well might serve as a valuable lesson when it comes to the quarterback position in the NFL.

It also could provide some trauma when watching the quarterback on the opposite side of the field.

THE PURDY WHAT-IF

As we chronicled earlier this week, that was the game when Purdy saw his first significant action for the 49ers and played well enough that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan knew they had their guy — as proof, he hasn't left the starting lineup since replacing Jimmy Garoppolo that day.

As NFL fans probably have heard dozens, if not hundreds, of times by now, Purdy was a rookie in 2022 after joining the 49ers as Mr. Irrelevant, the name given to the final pick of the draft.

Purdy was selected 262nd overall out of Iowa State, the ninth quarterback taken that year. The eighth quarterback taken was Skylar Thompson, who the Dolphins selected 247th overall as their own seventh-round pick.

While Thompson's career has gone pretty much the way you'd expect that of a seventh-round quarterback, Purdy has become that rare success story. Certainly not on a Tom Brady level, but a seventh-round pick becoming a full-time starter, if not a franchise quarterback, on a perennial contender is very, very significant.

And it begs the question of how badly the Dolphins messed up by not taking Purdy instead of Thompson in that seventh round.

To be fair, it's not like Purdy was considered by anyone as a steal in the seventh round; it's just played out that way.

And the next question, of course, is whether Purdy would have had the same breakthrough for the Dolphins that he had with San Francisco. Thompson ended up getting four starts for Miami — in 2022 against the Minnesota Vikings, in the season finale against the New York Jets and in the playoffs against the Buffalo Bills, and in 2024 against the Seattle Seahawks — and he failed to impress enough to be kept around after his third season.

Would Purdy have fared better?

MALIK WILLIS AND THE ROLE OF THE QUARTERBACK

While it's obvious Purdy has proven the better NFL quarterback, it's also unfair to leave out maybe the most significant factor here, and that's the supporting cast, coaching staff and whole organization the quarterbacks were thrown into.

Purdy got a massive contract extension in May 2025, but is he ever mentioned among the elite quarterbacks in the NFL?

The answer is no. But Purdy sure does seem to be the perfect guy, the perfect fit, for the 49ers.

And here is the major lesson to be taken there, as Dolphins fans fantasize about one of the elite college quarterbacks or already planning for Manning or hoping the Dolphins do less for (Dante) Moore: A team can be successful without having that superstar quarterback.

Another important lesson, this one coming Thursday night: Josh Allen is special, but finding a Josh Allen just ain't easy.

This is why maybe we should give Malik Willis a chance with the Dolphins with the idea that maybe the team eventually won't need a Josh Allen to win a Super Bowl title or at least contend for one and that maybe him becoming Brock Purdy-like for the team would be good enough for them to pass on the idea of a quarterback at the top of the 2027 draft.

It's up to Willis to reach a certain level, to be sure, but here's one final thing to consider when we talk about the quarterbacks in Dolphins-49ers matchup: Willis also was in that 2022 draft class, and days before the draft Tom Pelissero surveyed NFL executives, coaches and scouts for their thoughts on the pecking order among quarterbacks that year.

Malik Willis came at number 1.

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