Are the 2023 49ers Better than the 1994 49ers?

Let's compare the teams.

Grant Cohn | Oct 12, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

The 2023 49ers look not only like the best team in the NFL by a significant margin, but also the best team the 49ers have had in quite some time. Since 1994 perhaps, the last time they won the Super Bowl.

Which begs the question. Could the 2023 49ers be as good or better than the 1994 Super Bowl Champions? Let's compare the teams.

1994

One of the greatest teams of all time. Finished the regular season with a 13-3 record. Had the No. 1 offense and the No. 6 defense in the NFL. Had four Hall of Famers: Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Deion Sanders and Bryant Young. Also had 10 players go to the Pro Bowl this season: Young, Rice, Sanders, Ricky Watters, Brent Jones, Jesse Sapolu, Bart Oates, Dana Stubblefield, Tim McDonald and Merton Hanks.

The head coach was George Seifert, one of the greatest defensive coaches ever. He should be in the Hall of Fame -- he has five Super Bowl rings counting his time as a coordinator under Bill Walsh.

The offensive coordinator was Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan's father.

This was practically an All-Star team, and the 49ers could put it together because this was the first year the salary cap existed.

2023

Undefeated through five games. Leads the NFL in scoring differential. Currently have the No. 2 offense and the No. 1 defense in the NFL. Also have at least 12 players who could go to the Pro Bowl this season: Trent Williams, Kyle Juszczyk, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Fred Warner, Talanoa Hufanga and Charvarius Ward.

This is as close to an All Star team as you can put together in the Salary Cap Era, and the 49ers have been able to construct this roster largely because Brock Purdy is the lowest paid quarterback in the league. Most teams have to pay through the nose for good quarterback play -- not the 49ers. They pay next to nothing, which allows them to splurge everywhere else.

Until the 2023 49ers actually win the Super Bowl, they can't compare to the 1994 team. But the way the 2023 team is constructed, they could win the next two Super Bowls, because Purdy can't renegotiate his contract until 2025.

Their window is wide open.

Published Oct 12, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.