Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams bounce down the tunnel together every week before San Francisco 49ers games, and the pair are in unison on their views about the Niners' seemingly unstoppable offense.

San Francisco leads the NFL in offensive DVOA, Expected Points Added per play and yards per play. The 49ers are one of three teams to be averaging 30 points per game, they lead the league in explosive pass plays and are second in explosive run plays behind the Baltimore Ravens, whom they face on Christmas Day.

Yet Samuel and Williams had the same assessment of their attack in the wake of the Week 15 blowout of the Arizona Cardinals that clinched the NFC West title.

Is there a ceiling?

Asked about the offense's ceiling after the 49ers, with the help of a defensive score in the form of a Chavarius Ward pick-six, put up a season-high points total in a 45-29 victory, Williams replied:

"Who knows where the ceiling is? As long as we can come in here and take it one game at a time, we have so many playmakers, our offense should move the ball so no one should be surprised by that. I still think we got a ways to go before we can say we arrived but I do think with the weapons we have, obviously the guy to my right (Christian McCaffrey), (TE) George (Kittle), (QB) Brock (Purdy), Deebo, (WR Brandon) Aiyuk, (FB Kyle Juszczyk) Juice, the list goes on. So the offense should move the ball, but I think we still have a step that we can take. We can still get better."

Samuel echoed Williams' sentiments when speaking as part of his weekly appearance on 'Up and Adams', indicating the 49ers can still reach an even higher level despite being on a six-game winning streak that has catapulted them to the one seed in the NFC at 11-3.

“We always been right at the door, and what is it going to take for us to get over that hump,” Samuel said when talking about the 49ers’ hopes of returning to the Super Bowl after successive NFC Championship Game defeats.

“And we always had that taste in our mouth, like, 'Bro, what is it? What is it?' And as we continue to stack these days, stack these games, stack these wins, we still not playing to our best potential and still leaving stuff out there on the field. And that's things that neither you know or people out there know. It's just like within the building, like things that we know we have to work on. 

"Just little things of one block here would spring Christian free probably like three, four more times. Or a block here would have got Brock a little bit more time in the pocket to throw another ball. It's just like little things like that."

The comments from Williams and Samuel are remarkable given San Francisco's production, and they are scary to think about when you dig deeper into where the 49ers stand statistically in the history of the NFL, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

An historic pace

Not only are the 49ers the best team in this season's NFL by DVOA, they are the third-best team in league history by that measure through 14 games, per Aaron Schatz, trailing only the 2007 New England Patriots team that went undefeated and the 1991 Washington team that won the Super Bowl. San Francisco's offense is the third-best offense by DVOA through 14 games, behind the 2007 Patriots and the 2010 Patriots.

Even more impressively, the 49ers lead the NFL with a weighted DVOA, which gives greater weighting to games played more recently, of 52.1%. The Niners are the first team in NFL history to have a weighted DVOA of over 50% through Week 15.

One more 49ers DVOA stat.

The 49ers now have 52.1% weighted DVOA, which gives more strength to recent games. They are the first team to ever be over 50% as of Week 15. That's stronger than the 2007 Patriots were in weighted DVOA because they had closer games late in the season.

— Aaron Schatz ? (@ASchatzNFL) December 18, 2023

In other words, the Niners are on course to end the season as the best team in league history by one prominent measure of team efficiency, with their performance powered by an offense performing at levels akin to those produced by a 2007 Patriots attack widely considered to be the best ever.

At this point, it's clear the league is bearing witness to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's masterpiece and, if both Williams and Samuel are to be believed, it has the chance to get significantly more stunning.

49ers can achieve a Christmas Day first against the Ravens

They’ve never done it before.