49ers Picked to win SB

To be a devil's advocate: The Niners might have be so good last year due, at least in part, to Singletary leaving. The players wanted to show it wasn't their talent level that kept them from the playoffs. They won't have that impetus this year, at least not to the same degree. Also, I don't think we can say the Niners will be better because they'll have more practice time this year. The players and coaches may have fed off that fear of having too little time and compensated for it. All teams will have more practice time this year.

Just need to get hot at the right time. We are going to blow out the West. 6 seeds tend to make real noise in the playoffs, anyone can win it. Now we all got some playoff experience last year. This year we bust out.

They were picked to win the Super Bowl by a reporter who covers the 49ers. Surprise?

PWHOF, the initial point was this is the first of probably many. And I did mention he was a local, altho not a homer. MM has been pretty even handed in evaluations, and when 9ers laid an egg, he said so. MM has the distinction of being the first reporter to call the SB for the 9ers.