Can you believe that just four years ago the San Francisco 49ers were in the Super Bowl—with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback? A few quarterbacks later, they are now onto Brock Purdy and have the same ambitions for this upcoming season after reaching the conference finals with the third-string, seventh-round rookie a year ago.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have their own second-year quarterback for whom they have big plans as well, of course, in Kenny Pickett. And they showed a lot of potential with the growth they have made this offseason, which has gotten opponents like the San Francisco 49ers’ Fred Warner to take notice—even seeing comparisons between this Steelers team and the 2019 49ers.
“I think they have a really good team. I think people aren’t talking about them a whole lot just based off of how their season went last year”, he told reporters last week, via the 49ers’ website. “But to win seven of their last nine last year, it gives me a little bit of the feelings that we had in ’19. When we started, nobody was talking about us, but they have everything that you’d want”.
The 2019 49ers went 13-3 that year after winning 10 games in total the previous two years under head coach Kyle Shanahan. Then they nearly won the Super Bowl a year later, holding a lead with under three minutes to play against the Kansas City Chiefs. Things did go a little sideways from there.
But the Steelers would love to even be in that position. They haven’t sniffed a playoff victory since 2016. Shanahan was still the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons at that point, to give you some perspective on how long it’s been.
But does this Steelers team have the pieces that that 49ers team had to make a significant jump from one year to the next? Some might argue that they already began to take that jump last year with the 7-2 finish that Warner mentioned.
Well, they have their star edge rusher in T.J. Watt. They even have a spared in Alex Highsmith, and depth behind them. They have their studs in the trenches and in the secondary as well. Offensively, the skill positions are very promising with the likes of George Pickens and company. The offensive line should be the best it has been in half a decade at least. And then there’s the matter of Pickett.
“A young quarterback who has a lot of confidence, some great playmakers on that side of the ball, and a big, physical offensive line”, Warner said, reeling off a list of the offensive attributes that caught his eye. “It’s gonna be a huge test for us”.
Granted, not many players speak pre-game about how garbage their upcoming opponent is. Then again, they don’t compare every opponent to a previous team that made a Super Bowl run, either.
