"Minus our record, we're a really good football team," San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde said following this past Sunday's 44-33 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. "Next year, we're going to win the Super Bowl."
It's a bold prediction for a team that started the season by losing its first nine games. Since then, the 49ers have won five of their last six and four straight. Since Jimmy Garoppolo became San Francisco's starting quarterback, the team has looked much improved.
Garoppolo finished Sunday's game completing 21 of his 30 pass attempts for 242 yards, two touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, an interception, and a passer rating of 102.4. Since Week 13, he has completed 68.5-percent of his pass attempts for 1,250 yards, four touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 96.2.
Garoppolo has inserted a sense of excitement in the team that hasn't been present since the Harbaugh era. Hyde, who is scheduled to become a free agent, is excited to see what the future holds for the 49ers.
"I feel we've got a chance to go the Super Bowl next year and I don't want to go to another team," Hyde said.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan, who spoke to the media via a conference call on Tuesday, believes Hyde should rein it in a bit. San Francisco still has a game left to close out the 2017 season, and it will be a difficult one. On December 31, the 49ers will travel to Los Angeles to play the NFC West champion Rams at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The surprise Rams have lost just four games this season compared to 11 wins.
"I definitely would want to rein that in," Shanahan said. "I haven't spoken to Carlos yet. Just, from what I know of Carlos, I have a pretty good feeling that he was halfway joking, but I haven't seen him yet.
"No, definitely (want to cool off on that talk). That's not something that we want because I don't believe that's the way you should think. You can't control what's going on next year. You only can worry about right now.
"I thought we had a good game on Sunday. We've got to make sure we focus on the Rams this week, or we'll be humbled extremely fast. And when it comes to this offseason, you're not sitting there focusing on Super Bowls, focusing on playoffs. You're focusing on how to be the best person, best player, best coach you can be, whatever that is, and then everything else is just part of competing.
"When you start focusing on things like that and everything, you get humbled very fast."