The Most Surprising Thing About the 2023 49ers

In certain ways, this season from the 49ers has been entirely predictable.

They've been one of the best teams in the NFL since 2019. They've gone to three NFC Championship Games in the past four seasons. And they've kept their core group of players together while adding flat-out studs such as Christian McCaffrey and Javon Hargrave.

But even the most ardent 49ers supporters couldn't have seen this level of dominance coming. Teams simply don't dominate in the Salary Cap Era the way the 49ers have this season. And if the 49ers keep it up and win the Super Bowl, they'll go down as one of the best teams of all time. No one saw that coming.

And that's because no one realized how quickly Brock Purdy would bounce back from UCL surgery. Remember, he blew out his throwing elbow 11 months ago. He didn't participate in OTAs or minicamp, and he was on a pitch count in training camp, where he threw tons of picks.

And in the first half of the season, Purdy was up and down. He told Troy Aikman that his arm still wasn't 100 percent recovered. Then the bye week came, Purdy's arm got the rest it needed, and since then he has been the best quarterback in the NFL by far, at least statistically. He's probably going to win the MVP.

No one saw that coming.

Purdy is the best story in football if not all of American sports. He's this generation's version of Kurt Warner -- the castoff quarterback who becomes an MVP, a Champion and a Hall of Famer.

We'll see if Purdy can pull off that trifecta.