The San Francisco 49ers clinched the NFC West in Week 15 with a 21-13 win against the Seattle Seahawks with Brock Purdy playing great football.

For any casual NFL fan looking on from afar, it probably would have appeared that everything was going according to plan for head coach Kyle Shanahan and his very talented 49ers roster.

That was hardly the case, as Shanahan and general manager John Lynch’s script for the 2022 season had already been ripped to shreds in Week 2 when first-year starting quarterback Trey Lance went down with a fractured right ankle that required season-ending surgery.

Luckily enough for the 49ers, after an entire offseason that had everyone making predictions and proclamations as to where Jimmy Garoppolo would be traded, the veteran quarterback ended up restructuring his contract to stay in San Francisco for one last hurrah.

It was a brilliant move, to say the least.

But after an exceptional stretch that saw the 49ers go 6-3 — including a four-game winning streak with Garoppolo and the offense truly starting to thrive in all facets — Jimmy G went down early in Week 13 with a foot injury, effectively ending his season, too.

Much to the amazement of practically every NFL media member and any fan paying attention, this was actually the moment where all the fun started.

The next man up happened to be rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, more commonly known as “Mr. Irrelevant,” the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Anchored by a dominant defense to lean on, the seemingly fearless Purdy turned that four-game winning streak into an eight-game winning streak, with the Niners now gunning for the No. 2 playoff seed in the NFC.