49ers legend Steve Young knows the only thing more important than backing the red and gold is ripping on the Dallas Cowboys.
More specifically, he praised head coach Kyle Shanahan and talked trash about the Cowboys’ offense.
“The 49ers have a head coach who is as innovative as anybody in the league, at a time when the Cowboys last year are running 2015 plays and don’t have a chance,” Young said. “Kyle leans in and figures out ways to make it better for quarterbacks. So we’re ahead of the game already right there. And then we have as good a roster as anybody — it’s not perfect, but it’s as good as anybody.”
Young’s dig at Dallas is likely meant for Kellen Moore — the Cowboys offensive coordinator who got canned after losing to the Niners in the playoffs — but could easily still apply to Mike McCarthy, the head coach who just took over play-calling duties. When McCarthy was in charge of the offense with the Packers, his approach was very quickly called into question.
As for where the roster is lacking, as Young indicated, that seems to be based on the question marks surrounding the quarterback room. That’s arguably the worst possible place to have questions on a roster, but Young believes that, if Brock Purdy isn’t healthy, Sam Darnold and Trey Lance “can thrive with this system and this roster.”
Having the kind of roster that allows any quarterback to “thrive,” regardless of where they are on the depth chart, will naturally lead to high expectations for a team. Simply beating the Cowboys in the playoffs — heck, even an NFC Championship appearance — won’t be good enough for that kind of team. Many fans would likely agree with Rice’s declaration about the Niners’ goals: “They should go into training camp thinking Super Bowl.”
We’ll see just what kind of mind set this dominant team has when rookies report to camp on July 18.