49ers Game Will Not Be a Super Bowl Repeat
Laddie Morse
The game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday will be unlike their Super Bowl two years ago. First of all, the Chiefs are a very different team. Gone are most all the players who were tasked with protecting Patrick Mahomes up front, which is a good thing. The Linebacker core is dramatically different as are the Cornerbacks. In fact, one of the Chiefs corners then, Charvarius Ward, is now playing for the 49ers and doing a heck of a job.
Jet Chip Wasp: Gone, Baby Gone
Do you recall when, during that Super Bowl win over Frisco, Patrick Mahomes said to Eric Bieniemy during a time out with 7:13 to go in the game: “Do we have time to run Wasp?“ Apparently, according to HC Andy Reid, that play is gone from the playbook! Kaput!
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“Yeah, that play got a lot of publicity. I’m sure they’ve
worked on it, but we don’t run it anymore so.”
-Andy Reid
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That’s not a play you’ll hear called this Sunday when K.C. travels to face off against the 49ers in San-Fran. You know what else will be missing from that game this weekend? WR Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs have totally re-vamped their offensive attack and don’t rely upon the long ball as much as they once did when Hill was here. Instead, the Chiefs received a haul of draft picks in that trade, five to be exact, including: a 1st-rounder, a 2nd-rounder, two 4ths and a 6th.
49ers Aren’t the Same Either
The San Francisco 49ers have had their roster turnover plenty during the past three offseasons. In fact, this past offseason saw several players not return. From an article for NinerNoise.com, a FanSided site for the 49ers, Peter Panacy wrote a piece called, “5 players 49ers won’t bring back after final 2022 season” in which he says,
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“If one just thinks about the Niners’ Super Bowl team from the 2019 season, already a number of key contributors are long gone. Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders isn’t there. Neither is cornerback Richard Sherman nor defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Same with left tackle Joe Staley and a number of others, too.”
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Of course, some of those player left in the offseason after the Super Bowl. That’s fairly typical for a team that plays in the Super Bowl, because all their players nearly become household names and their market goes way up. Even though that happened to the 49ers, the Chiefs were in a “Run it Back” campaign the following year in which they were attempting to re-sign all their own players with the idea that they could return to the Super Bowl, which they did, and then win it, which they did not. Consequently, the past two offseasons, the Chiefs have been making wholesale changes, which leaves their roster looking much different than it did for their Super Bowl runs. Much younger too.
Mahomes Has Grown
The Chiefs QB deluxe, Patrick Mahomes has gotten better and better, year in, and year out. Take a look at Mahomes performance in his first three seasons compared to three other all time great QBs: Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
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While Mahomes was good enough for Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy to listen to him in the Super Bowl, then call a play PMII wanted to run (Jet Chip Wasp), Mahomes has become a much better QB, not only in the pocket, but in taking what the defense gives him. That’s been necessary because 31 other team’s Defensive Coordinators have been planning on how to stop him, like taking the deep ball away. A good reason why the Chiefs decided to trade Tyreek Hill (beside the fact that they couldn’t afford to pay Hill what he wanted).
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Offensive Line Changes
When K.C. won the Super Bowl following the 2019 season, their offensive line was not a strength of the team. Here’s a look at the offensive line players on that team, with the players in red, who are still on this team today (3 out of ten):
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Three players from that Lombardi winning team are still on the team now, and only one of them is a starter. Still, that one player, is likely to be replaced sometime during this season — I’m guessing it will be following the Bye Week — and that player is RT Andrew Wylie, and the player he’s been replacing is: Lucas Niang. Niang suffered a torn patellar tendon back in Week 17 of the 2021 season and he’s been rehabbing that injury ever since then. Reid said this week, referring to his return:
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“Most likely it would be after the bye,
but somewhere after the bye.”
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49ers Kong Sized Injury Report
Last, which should probably be first, but not the least of which, is the injury report for the 49ers.
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I’ve read that 49ers star Safety Jimmy Ward is Out for this game (for sure) with a broken hand. This tweet above has him listed as week-to-week, but that’s just wishful thinking. From the 49ers web site comes this report just yesterday:
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“The team welcomed back three of its starters, defensive end Nick Bosa (groin), safety Jimmie Ward (hand) and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) to practice on Wednesday. All three have been rehabbing their respective injuries and worked out with the team in a limited capacity.”
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“… in a limited capacity” explains it best. With the San Fran Bye Week coming up in one more week, after they face the Chiefs then the Rams, I’m guessing the 49ers will sit these guys so they can fully heal. We’ll know more later on today (and Saturday of course). They have 9 players who either Did Not Practice (DNP) or were in a Light Practice (LP) mode, while K.C. had three (3) players in DNP or LP mode.
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Summary
The score in this game on Sunday, could well end up the same as when these two teams last played, in Super Bowl LIV — 31-to-20 — but the way each team arrives at those points, should be dramatically different.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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