What Kyle Shanahan regards as ‘ridiculous’ talk could be the difference between the 49ers and the Eagles.

What Kyle Shanahan views as 'ridiculous' talk could be the difference in 49ers overpowering Eagles this season

If Kyle Shanahan is being honest — and he was this Thanksgiving — he thinks the discussion is “ridiculous.”

The San Francisco 49ers’ head coach doesn’t believe in labelling quarterbacks as “elite” or “Super Bowl-caliber,” he said after his team improved to 8-3 with a 31-13 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

He doesn’t think of playoff success or quarterback talent in such binary terms, and he doesn’t think you should either.

“There [have] been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls,” Shanahan said Thursday night. “And those who do don’t do so on their own. They must be on a good team, have strong defences, and many other factors must be considered. So I always dread that conversation.”

The discussion will continue to follow the 49ers as they prepare for their next game, a rematch of the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles on December 3. Because any NFL fan can see that San Francisco has a very good, very successful team this season. It was also clear that the 49ers led a very good, very successful team to the conference championship game the previous season.

The Eagles quickly overpowered an otherwise powerful 49ers team after starting quarterback Brock Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing elbow and backup quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion. That brings us back to Shanahan’s speech.

“You’ve got to have a really good football team to talk about even having a chance to get there,” he said. “And when you have a great football team, you better have a great quarterback.” And if you do that, you’d better be lucky with injuries. You must still play good defence. You need to improve your game with everything.”

The 49ers checked all of those boxes against the Seahawks on Thursday. They took advantage of schematic mismatches to build an early lead they would never relinquish; complemented a nasty defensive line effort with a lockdown day from cornerback Charvarius Ward; and recovered from a rocky third-quarter stretch in which Purdy gave up a pick 6.

Purdy wasn’t perfect, nor was he as clean as he was in the 49ers’ previous game, when he had a perfect passer rating of 158.3. His impact, however, was greater than his box score suggests. Purdy’s under-the-radar contributions against the Eagles could change the 49ers’ calculus.