Brandon Aiyuk Is On A Warpath To Prove The Eagles "Got Extremely Lucky" And The 49ers Are "Hands-Down" The NFL's Best Team
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk is totally on one and to be honest, if I scratched and clawed my way to the NFC Championship Game with my third-string quarterback down the stretch, I'd feel pretty similarly.
The thing is, I'm not so sure the Niners knock off the Eagles even with a healthy Brock Purdy. Despite the brilliance of coach/play-caller Kyle Shanahan and how loaded the roster is, Purdy would've been the first-ever rookie to start a conference title tilt and win. Given how stacked the Eagles are, how deep their d-line is and how Purdy should've thrown multiple interceptions in multiple starts but somehow never did, I can't be as convinced as Aiyuk that San Francisco could've pulled that one out. They did lose 31-7 after all.
Nevertheless, Aiyuk persisted in this really cool interview with Brad of "TheSFNiners" on YouTube. As NBCSports.com transcribed in part, there was no letup in Aiyuk despite his admission that he has "no room to talk" since he's sitting on the couch ahead of Super Bowl Sunday.
"We have a talented football team. We have, hands down, the best football team in the league. Hands down. I’m not going even going to argue with anyone who thinks they should argue that.
"[…] That's what makes it so sick about this one because we feel like everything we did from that point on ... just what we did to the league, how we just played on tape, I firmly believe we put fear in the opponent's hearts. When they had to come to play San Francisco, the 49ers, we felt like it was our time. We felt like it was our time and for that to get cut short, it's sickening."
Hindsight is 20/20 of course. Still, I'd give the offensive line edge to Philly. While they aren't quite as formidable at the skill positions, their pass-catching trio of AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert isn't that much worse than the 49ers' Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle, if at all. The real X-factor for San Francisco is Christian McCaffrey since he's such a do-it-all back.
Here's the key, though: Brock Purdy is Brock Purdy. Not taking anything away from his unbelievable rise to relative stardom, because it's one of the NFL's best narratives from the last decade or more. Jalen Hurts was in the MVP conversation and was the frontrunner until he injured his throwing shoulder late in the season.
Advertisement
The Eagles basically got to sit on a lead, averaged only 3.8 yards per play to the Niners' 3.6 and still won by 24. Even with Purdy closing the gap to a considerable degree at the most important position, would his presence really have mattered that much? I guess we'll never know.
What we also don't now is what the hell Shanahan is going to do at quarterback in 2023 and beyond. It sounds like Purdy is the preferred choice over 2021 No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance. That is, until Purdy got injured. I personally think the NFL scriptwriters should execute a plot twist wherein Kirk Cousins finally reunites with Shanahan in the Bay Area about a decade after their shared time in Washington.
What the Niners need is a durable, dependable and above-average starter to get them over the hump. Advancing to the NFC title game three of the last four years with zero Super Bowls to show for it is a tough pill to swallow. My Bengals are in danger of a similar fate and I hate even putting that out there but I'm also confident Joe Burrow is gonna lift that damn Lombardi Trophy soon enough.
I wonder what Aiyuk and the rest of the locker room thinks about the whole QB situation. They must feel cursed at this point. Like, were the golden years of Joe Montana and Steve Young really worth this type of punishment? Kind of extreme if you ask me. Or maybe it was Shanahan's decision to release Colin Kaepernick right when he took the job as head coach that's resulted in all this karmic blowback.
TO BE CLEAR, I'M JOKING ABOUT ALL THIS…Although moving off Kaep for the devastating duo of Brian "The Destroyer" Hoyer and C.J. Beathard was definitely a vibe for a hot second before the in-season Jimmy G trade.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok