The San Francisco 49ers have come close to winning two Super Bowls in the Kyle Shannan era They lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs late both times, in Super Bowl 54 and 58.
Now they are overdue to lift the Lombardi Trophy for the sixth time in their illustrious franchise history. There's good reason to believe the drought will end at 31 seasons in 2025.
Winning Super Bowls on home fields once just didn't happen. Before it happened twice of late, Joe Montana's 49ers had been the closest when they beat Dan Marino's Dolphins in Super Bowl 19, a game played at Stanford Stadium, 45 miles away from San Francisco.
But the Buccaneers won Super Bowl 55 on their home field over the Chiefs in Tampa. The Rams made it back-to-back when taking Super Bowl 56 over the Bengals. Add a third modern NFC power, 49ers, to the club, over a third AFC team: The Buffalo Bills.
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The 49ers hosted Super Bowl 50 in Levi's Stadium, ideal for the golden anniversary edition of the game. A decade later, everything is lining up for them to stay and keep winning in Santa Clara through the end of the playoffs.
Coming off an injury-riddled non-playoff season following their crushing 25-22 OT loss to the Chiefs, the 49ers couldn't get rid of their Super Bowl 58 hangover last season. The reward, however, is a favorable schedule and benefitting from a needed big change.
Whatever metric one uses, the 49ers have the easiest slate of 17 games in the NFL in 2025. The only four teams against 2024 playoff teams are the Rams twice (Weeks 4 and 10), the Buccaneers (Week 8) and Texans (Week 8).
They draw the two easiest interdivision schedules vs. the NFC and AFC South. They also benefit from facing last-place teams in the Browns, Bears and Giants after going 6-11 in landing in the NFC West cellar.
The 49ers should rip through their schedule with their usual high level of offensive balance and explosiveness with Christian McCaffrey back healthy to boost Brock Purdy. Robert Saleh's return to scheme the defense will clean up a lot around Nick Bosa and Fred Warner.
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San Francisco has by far the easiest path to home-field advantage and top NFC playoff seed, also earning a bye into he divisional round. That would set them up to just win twice at home to play there again in Super Bowl 60. As long as they avoid the Chiefs, they will win the Super Bowl, following the third time's a charm.
The Bills are the team overdue on the other side and should have more confidence to get past the Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals and others with reigning MVP Josh Allen in a total groove, a strong running game and deep pressure defense.
With McCaffrey, George Kittle and some aging players, the 49ers are running out of time to get a ring with his core. Brock Purdy has proved he can lead a team to the Super Bowl and health is the bigger factor to getting the 49ers back there and over the hump.
The 49ers' sense of urgency comes through to help them follow the Buccaneers, Rams and Eagles as the latest NFC Super Bowl champions. The 49ers winning and the Bills losing a Super Bowl feels more like the '80s turning into the '90s. But there's a reasonable path to the matchup finally coming into fruition.