If Kyle Shanahan is being honest — and this Thanksgiving, he was — he thinks the talk is “ridiculous.”
The San Francisco 49ers head coach doesn’t value categorizing quarterbacks as “elite” or “Super Bowl-caliber,” he explained after a 31-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks improved his team to 8-3.
He doesn’t view playoff success nor quarterback talent in such black-and-white terms, and he doesn’t recommend you do either.
“There [have] been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls,” Shanahan said Thursday night. “And the ones who do, don’t win them on their own. They’ve got to be on a good team and they’ve got to have good defenses and there’s so many things that go into it. So I always kind of hate that conversation.”
The conversation will nonetheless follow the 49ers in the leadup to their next game, a Dec. 3 NFC championship rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles. Because it’s obvious to any NFL fan that San Francisco fields a very good, very successful team this season. It was obvious, too, that the 49ers carried a very good, very successful team to the conference championship game last season.
San Francisco’s Brock Purdy completed 21 of 30 passes for 209 yards, a touchdown and a pick 6 in Thursday night’s victory against Seattle. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images) (Jane Gershovich via Getty Images)
Then starting quarterback Brock Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing elbow and backup quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, and rapidly the Eagles overpowered an otherwise powerful 49ers team. Which brings us back to Shanahan’s sermon.
“You’ve got to have a really good football team to talk about even having a chance to get there,” Shanahan said. “And when you have a really good football team, you better have a really good quarterback. And when you do that, you still better have luck with injuries. You’ve still got to play good defense. You’ve got to play better with everything.”
Against the…
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