49ers confident they’ve turned page on 2023 heartbreak to 2024 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SANTA CLARA – Brock Purdy sees no reason to look backward. With the 2024 NFL season getting started, the 49ers quarterback is only concerned with the here and now. The past is the past, and that’s where he intends to leave it.
That includes the 49ers’ spirit-crushing overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in February, a loss that reverberated throughout the franchise. It marked the second consecutive season in which San Francisco got so close but finished so far away from capturing its sixth championship.
That was then. This is now, Purdy says, and that’s all that matters.
“It’s about 2024. We played that game in February and now it’s already a new season,” Purdy said Friday. “It’s been like that since we got back for OTAs and camp, just in terms of flipping the page and getting after it for this year. It’s a long season, it’s a marathon but we know what it takes.
“Monday night for us is the start of a whole new journey.”
It might be a new journey but the destination remains the same.
The 49ers, who begin the season at home against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets in front of a national television audience on Monday night, are one of the betting favorites to win Super Bowl LIX, right behind the defending champion Chiefs.
Almost to a player, the 49ers insist there’s no Super Bowl hangover. In the offseason they tried to address some of their issues from 2023 and feel like they’ve wiped the slate clean.
It’s a new season and a new chapter for the franchise.
“We’ve done so much as a team, whether it’s guys leaving, guys joining our team and growing together with the squad that we have this year,” Purdy said. “That’s where our mindset is at.”
The 49ers don’t have the luxury of easing into the season.
Rodgers, who missed most of his first season with the Jets, still carries a chip on his shoulder from being bypassed by the 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft. A Northern California native who grew up in the Bay Area and had hopes of playing for the Red and Gold, Rodgers recently said that he’s moved past the bitterness he once felt but people close to him say otherwise.
Purdy and San Francisco’s offense won’t have to deal with any of that but they do face the challenge of facing one of the NFL’s top defenses from 2023.
The Jets had the No. 3 overall defense last season, allowing 292.3 yards per game. New York struggled against the run but was very solid defending the passing game.
Additionally, Jets head coach Robert Saleh was the 49ers defensive coordinator from 2017-20 so he’s familiar with many of San Francisco’s players and their skills. Saleh also uses several of the same schemes and concepts in New York that he did with the 49ers, which may work in San Francisco’s favor.
“Pretty similar,” Purdy said. “You can just tell their mindset of playing fast and physical, just like our guys. They fly around. We have to be ready for anything, other kinds of looks and stuff, going into. They know we’re familiar with their defense, but we have to be ready for anything else they throw our way.”
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