The 49ers, at 8-1, have the third-best odds by Caesars Sportsbook to win Super Bowl LV. But at least one offshore betting site has installed the 49ers as favorites to claim the Lombardi Trophy a year from now.
“That’s a long way down the road,” 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said, “but we have a young football team, a very talented football team. It’s just one of those things that you have to remember this feeling and let it fuel you in the future.”
The 49ers finished 2018 with a 4-12 record after Garoppolo tore his ACL. It allowed them to draft Nick Bosa with the second overall choice.
The 49ers nearly wrote the storybook finish, going 13-3 and winning the NFC in 2019. In Super Bowl LIV, they led by 10 points in the fourth quarter and were up 20-17 with less than three minutes remaining. They lost 31-20.
The Rams lost the Super Bowl a year ago and failed to make the postseason this season.
The 49ers, though, aren’t concerned about getting over the loss.
“It shouldn’t be a problem,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We’ll lick our wounds, and we’ll get over this. We’ll be fired up for next year. We have a lot of people coming back. We surprised a lot of people this year. We knew we had a good team. I’m very proud of the guys and how much better they got throughout this year. We get almost all of these guys back and plan on adding a few more. We’re going to rest a little bit and get over this some, but we will be very fired up for next year.”
Same time, next year?
“You want to say, ‘Yeah,’” tight end George Kittle said. “I think every team that loses the Super Bowl says that they are going to be back. I think what we have to do is realistically look ourselves in the mirror and say what worked well for us this year, what didn’t work well for us this year and how we are going to make that better, how we are going to be a better team, how we are not going to lose those three games by seven points and how we are going to win every single game. That is what you try to do. You try to go out and win every single game. It doesn’t happen a lot, but that is what you try to do. We are just going to try to figure that out.”