No rookie seventh-round draft pick has ever started at quarterback in an NFL playoff game. This weekend, two will.
Dolphins quarterback Skylar Thompson was the 247th overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant at No. 262. They both went late in the seventh round, and they were the last two quarterbacks off the board.
They’re also now going to be the two lowest-drafted rookie quarterbacks to start in the playoffs. Purdy will start today against the Seahawks, and Thompson will start tomorrow against the Bills.
This is the first time since the 2012 wild card round that two rookie quarterbacks are starting in the same playoff weekend. In 2012 three rookie quarterbacks started in the wild card round: Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.
Luck and Griffin both lost their wild card games; Purdy and Thompson are looking to become the first rookie quarterbacks to win a playoff start since Wilson in 2012.
In the common-draft era, only three rookie quarterbacks drafted outside the first round have won a playoff start: Wilson in 2012, T.J. Yates with the Texans in 2011 and Shaun King with the Buccaneers in 1999.
Both Purdy and Thompson were third-string quarterbacks who only became starters when the first- and second-string quarterbacks were injured. Purdy has played very well as a rookie, and the 49ers are are nine-point favorites. Thompson has been shaky as a rookie and the Dolphins are 13.5-point underdogs.