The San Francisco 49ers are at the top of the NFL right now, sitting at 6-0 after their 23-17 win over the Washington Commanders.
After starting the year with the third-best odds in their own division, the 49ers are the clear frontrunners to win the NFC and currently stand as the favorites to win the Super Bowl at +600, according to FanDuel.
San Francisco has been clicking everywhere this season, despite their bevy of injuries. Behind MVP-level play from Brock Purdy and an elite No. 1 receiver in Mike
Evans, the 49ers offense has been quite efficient throughout the year. The defense, on the other hand, has overcome the loss of Nick Bosa over the last few weeks to be a strong finishing team with a ton of growing young talent under Raheem Morris.
Even with the injuries, it feels like this could be the year for the 49ers, and they’ll get a chance to get a lot of players healthy following their bye in Week 8.
Ultimately, it will come down to the playoffs, where the 49ers have had their moments over the last seven years, but have come up short in their pursuit of the Super Bowl. They made it there in 2019, lost in the NFC Championship Game in 2021 and 2022, made it there again in 2023, and then lost in the divisional round last year.
Will Kyle Shanahan finally get his Super Bowl here in 2026? One of his former star receivers, Roddy White, doesn’t believe so, and also doesn’t ever see him winning a ring for a few reasons.
“No,” White said when asked about Shanahan winning a ring during his career on The Up And Adams Show. “They start like this every year. That team starts very fast every year. The only time they haven’t started fast is when they had everybody hurt. And this year they’re still managing to get people hurt, but they’re off to a good start. I think, me personally, that he’s a great offensive mind, right?
“But in tough situations, in pressure situations, the over-aggressive play calls always get him in trouble. And I think that’s just his mentality. He doesn’t play situational football well. That’s the only thing that I think that’s really like a knock on his game. And the thing that he does, he doesn’t play like situational football well. And that gets his team in trouble when you play against great quarterbacks. And when you make it to a Super Bowl, you’re gonna be playing against a great quarterback.”
The four-time Pro Bowl receiver for the Atlanta Falcons believes Shanahan has yet to learn game management and handling those situations in playoff games.
“Your ability to understand the flow of the game and the things like that is going to help you win those games,” White continued. “And I think especially if you have to play Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. That guy has learned from Tom Brady, just playing him each and every year, playing him in Super Bowls. He knows what it takes. He can read what’s going on. He knows how to handle those situations, and he always comes out as a winner because he doesn’t give himself an opportunity to lose the game. And I think that Kyle always thinks about I have to win the game. I have to win the game instead of putting his players in the best position to win the game.
“He’s a great play caller, like great play caller. The play call sheet is deep. I will say that. But he seems to have a guy that can handle it. Being a part of that and just doing everything when Matt [Ryan] was there and going through everything. I mean, man, we’ll be on the sideline, and he’ll see something, boom, boom, boom. He’d be like, hey, man, I know we didn’t work this in practice, but it’s gonna work. Hey, this is what I want you to do. Boom, go out there, extra eye, execute the play, works. Boom, explosive play. So he’s very, very smart. I just think the aggressive play calling when not needed in pressure situations always gets the best of him.”
Shanahan’s game management, especially in go-for situations, had been one of the more scrutinized parts of him as a head coach earlier in his career. He had generally been too conservative in those situations and often went against analytics with his decisions. That has changed over the past few years, but White believes he’s gotten too aggressive as a play-caller.
So far this season, he’s been having a great year after arguably the best coaching season of his career in 2025 with a battered 49ers team. We’ll see if that can translate to postseason success, but the 49ers are putting themselves in a great spot to be successful in January with their start to the season.
