Why the 49ers are bound to return to the Super Bowl this season
The 49ers are used to contending to win the Super Bowl during the Kyle Shanahan era, but they are also used to a lot of heartache. San Francisco has been to at least the NFC Championship Game in three of the past four seasons. The 49ers lost Super Bowl LIV to the Chiefs at the […]
The 49ers are used to contending to win the Super Bowl during the Kyle Shanahan era, but they are also used to a lot of heartache.
San Francisco has been to at least the NFC Championship Game in three of the past four seasons. The 49ers lost Super Bowl LIV to the Chiefs at the end of the 2019 season, losing in heartbreaking fashion as Kansas City produced an incredible comeback in the final seven minutes. A 10-point fourth quarter-lead was let slip in the NFC title game with the Rams two seasons later, and Brock Purdy's elbow injury robbed the Niners of a fair fight against the Eagles at the same stage last year.
But this season feels different, with the 49ers giving all the impressions of a team bound not only for a return to the Super Bowl, but to win the ultimate prize in their 42-10 shellacking of the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
There are myriad reasons to point to when explaining why the 49ers are set up to go all the way in 2023. San Francisco has the premier play-caller in football, a cavalcade of skill-position talent, a young and seemingly continually improving offensive line and an overwhelming defense stuffed with All-Pro players.
This is a roster stacked with potential future Hall of Famers overseen by one of the finest football minds of a generation.
Yet they have long since had such talent and, despite all the capital the 49ers have spent to amass it, the reason this year feels different is in large part down to the abilities of a player they selected with the final pick of the 2022 draft.
The Purdy of it all
Yes, Shanahan's scheme and the talent the 49ers have puts Purdy in an unbelievable position to succeed. That is undeniable, but is disingenuous to suggest the most unlikely of franchise quarterbacks is not elevating the ceiling of the offense with the play he has produced through the first five weeks of the season.
Described as "pretty flawless" by Shanahan after going 17 of 24 for 252 yards and, for the first time in his career, four touchdown passes against the Cowboys, Purdy's consistency in producing accurate throws and avoiding mistakes have underpinned a start to the season that has him first in the NFL in passer rating (123.1), Expected Points Added per play, and DYAR, a measure of a quarterback's total value.
Beyond Purdy's ball placement, poise and efficiency, though, it is the additional elements he brings to a loaded offense that, along with the arrival of Christian McCaffrey in a mid-season trade with the Panthers, have elevated a star-studded offense to new heights.
All four of Purdy's touchdown passes against Dallas came from outside the tackle box, the most in a single game in the NextGen Stats era, while he also completed 7 of 10 passes of at least 10 air yards for 166 yards and three touchdowns. His completion percentage of 72.1 percent on throws of 10 or more air yards is the best in the NFL.
Playmaking outside the pocket and an ability to push the ball downfield regularly with success: those were two traits were largely conspicuous by their absence with Purdy's predecessor Jimmy Garoppolo under center. However, Purdy's possession of both has added new dimensions to what was arguably already the most multi-faceted attack in the game, and he already has 18 completions of 20 yards or more, only 13 fewer than Garoppolo produced in 11 games last year. Expect him to surpass that number in short order.
An ever expanding menu
The infusion of McCaffrey into the offense and the influence he and Deebo Samuel have on defense when they motion into and out of the backfield has multiplied the ways in which the 49ers can attack their opponents, and Purdy's composure, consistency, accuracy and upside as a playmaker willing to push it deep outside the numbers and make plays out of structure has only added to that.
Nick Bosa said it perfectly in his post-game press conference, saying of Purdy and the offense: "Brock is playing as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. 2019 was majority run game, and now we can attack any which way."
The 49ers are attacking any way they want with tremendous success, and they have the security blanket of a defense that deserves significant acclaim for the way in which it suffocated the Dallas offense, with switch from now Texans coach DeMeco Ryans to new coordinator Steve Wilks producing no signs of a drop-off from their elite standards of 2022.
Not too much has changed under Wilks, but the addition of Javon Hargrave to the interior of the defensive line has made that front even more formidable, while a willingness to be more aggressive and utilize more man coverage paid huge dividends against Dallas.
Between Bosa, Hargrave and Fred Warner, who had a hand in two turnovers and registered a sack of Dak Prescott in a performance that served as the start of a Defensive Player of the Year resume, a remarkable level of talent is obviously a huge factor in success on defense, as it is on offense.
But it's also about what the talent on both sides allows the 49ers to do. The Niners have the front seven to send exotic blitzes and the depth up front to occasionally play with five defensive linemen, while the horses they have in the trenches and in the secondary gives Wilks the freedom to play more man.
The defense, though, has the luxury of being spotted a lot more points by an offense whose menu has expanded significantly.
The 49ers can stretch defenses horizontally with McCaffrey and Samuel and the impact of motion, but also vertically in large part because of Purdy's prowess attacking areas Garoppolo scarcely ventured into.
San Francisco's opponents are being asked to defend huge areas of space, and they are failing miserably. In turn, the 49er defense is quickly removing any hope opposing offenses have of trying to respond. It's a recipe for Super Bowl triumph, and its heart is the quarterback nobody expected allowing the NFL's pre-eminent play-caller freedom of choice that was never quite possible with those who went before him.
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