For the second season in a row, the San Francisco 49ers came within one game of returning to the Super Bowl. The Bay Area squad, struggling to find a healthy quarterback to throw the football, lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
Who knows what might have happened had rookie quarterback Brock Purdy not suffered a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow in the first quarter? Maybe it would have been San Francisco, not Philadelphia, with the opportunity to knock off the now-Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Oddsmakers at FanDuel love the 49ers' chances to win it all next season. San Francisco is tied with the Eagles and Cincinnati for the NFL's third-best odds (+900) to win Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas next year. Only two teams, the Chiefs (+600) and the Buffalo Bills (+850), own better odds.
Purdy is expected to miss about six months after undergoing surgery on February 22. Trey Lance, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury on September 18, is expected to be healthy in time for organized team activities (OTAs) in May.
Lance underwent two surgeries since his injury. The first, in September, was to repair the damage. The second, in late December, was to remove hardware inserted during the initial operation.
"[I]t's going to be a process," Lance said last week of his recovery and return. "Ups and downs, and it has been, obviously, with the second procedure and everything like that. But I feel like I'm in a really great spot, and OTAs, I should be fully cleared."
Meanwhile, Purdy hopes to return sometime during training camp, likely in August, ahead of the start of the 2023 season.
"[T]hey said I'll be able to start throwing and get onto a program after three months or so and then be ready come camp," Purdy said last week.
Below are the 12 NFL teams with the best odds of winning Super Bowl 58.
- Kansas City Chiefs +600
- Buffalo Bills +850
- Philadelphia Eagles +900
- Cincinnati Bengals +900
- San Francisco 49ers +900
- Dallas Cowboys +1500
- Baltimore Ravens +1600
- Los Angeles Chargers +2000
- Green Bay Packers +2500
- Jacksonville Jaguars +2500
- Detroit Lions +2500
- New York Jets +2500