Unexpected Potential
Unexpected Potential
Each NFL team adds fresh players to their roster during the annual draft. Every coach and their staff spend hours looking at every available player. They evaluate each one’s talent, physical fitness, work ethic, and how he may help the team. They attempt to consider everything as they gauge each player’s potential.
In 2022, Brock Purdy was the final player drafted, the 262nd pick. The most desirable players had already been chosen. The nickname for the final player selected each year is called, “Mr. Irrelevant.” No one expects them to see any game time the next season. This changed when the San Francisco 49er’s first and second-string quarterbacks were injured, and Purdy was thrust into the limelight.
Surprising everyone, “Mr. Irrelevant” shepherded his team on a ten-game winning streak that earned them a division title. He led the league in several passing categories and would appear in the following year’s Super Bowl.
NFL teams are typically proud of their ability to spot talent, but Purdy demonstrates this is not always the case. I am not being overly critical since each of us sometimes fails to recognize the potential in others.
This is illustrated in scripture when God sent his prophet to Bethlehem and had him anoint a new king in 1 Samuel 16. Jesse was to bring his sons to meet Samuel but failed to call his youngest from the fields where David was watching the family’s sheep. Neither David’s father, Jesse, nor the prophet Samuel thought David was the son with real potential.
Eliab, the first son Jesse showed him was so impressive the prophet was eager to anoint him Israel’s next king. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:7, NLT)
The next chapter of David’s story is his fight with Goliath. Lisa Samra observed in her February 7, 2025, Our Daily Bread devotional, that Eliab was angry with David for being too eager to fight Goliath. He accused his younger brother of being wicked and conceited. Samra wrote, “Eliab likely regretted those words as David soon made history by slaying Goliath.” (1 Samuel 17:28)
Remarkably, no one in the story recognized David’s potential. We sometimes make the same mistake. Like Jesse and Samuel, each of us has often focus on the wrong things when evaluating other’s potential.
David would soon become Israel’s greatest king. Currently, Purdy is negotiating his first NFL contract as a successful quarterback. The 49ers are expected to pay him more than $50 million each season.
Do not be too quick to decide that either you or others have limited potential. God can use anyone. He sees the worth of each person and often uses people in remarkable ways we could never imagine.