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5 Reasons San Francisco 49ers are NFC Super Bowl favorites

By Cody Williams

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 07: Dee Ford #55 and Nick Bosa #97 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after a sack of the quarterback against the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter of an NFL football game at Levi's Stadium on October 07, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 07: Dee Ford #55 and Nick Bosa #97 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after a sack of the quarterback against the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter of an NFL football game at Levi's Stadium on October 07, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
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The San Francisco 49ers are 4-0 after a dominant win over the Browns and are the obvious NFC favorites to make it to Super Bowl 54.

Hype and expectations around the San Francisco 49ers coming into the 2019 NFL season were tempered. After all, many fans and analysts were burned a year ago as they bought into Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo being a sleeper in the NFC. Garoppolo’s injury did no one any favors but the Niners were also relatively disappointing prior to the injury.

As it turns out, everyone may have just been a year early on this team.

Following a 31-3 beatdown of the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football to cap off Week 5, the 49ers are now 4-0 on the season and in the driver’s seat in the NFC. San Francisco and the New England Patriots are the only two undefeated teams remaining in the league after five weeks and the Niners have very real Super Bowl aspirations at this early point of the season.

It’s worth noting that the 49ers schedule has not been all that difficult to this point but they’ve also been dominant in winning. Anyone not believing in what they’re doing right now isn’t paying attention to what’s happening in the Bay Area. But rest assured — the San Francisco 49ers are the NFC favorites to make it to the Super Bowl. Here’s why.

5. Shanahan’s system falling in place

Looking back to Kyle Shanahan’s tenure as the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, his first year in 2015 was somewhat underwhelming. They showed flashes of being a high-octane attack but everything didn’t fall into place. The following season, however, Matt Ryan fully embraced and got acclimated to the play-action heavy style and, as a result, the Falcons were the highest-scoring offense in the NFL and made it to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl collapse aside, what the current 49ers’ head coach’s time in Atlanta showed was that it can take a couple of years for everything to click. Thus, it stands to reason that, in year three for Shanahan and his first full season with Garoppolo, that everything that this team is capable of is just now being revealed.

Everything that the 49ers are doing in Shanahan’s offense right now looks seamless. The misdirection with play-action and pre-snap motion is working to perfection and the play designs when they run the ball are absolutely beautiful football. It’s clear that the head coach’s vision for this offense is finally being enacted and the results speak for themselves as they’ve scored more than 24 points in every game thus far.