The moment is never too big for 49ers wide receiver Kendrick Bourne. Head coach Kyle Shanahan believes it’s one of the qualities that allows Bourne to continually come up with catches in big spots. The good news for the 49ers is Bourne’s confidence hasn’t waned in the wake of a loss in Super Bowl LIV. On Saturday he tweeted “We gonna win the super bowl, you heard it here first” in response to photos of him and 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander after a workout.
That extreme confidence in early May is a double-edged sword for a team that won 13 games and an NFC crown last season.
A potential pitfall is that the guarantee of a Super Bowl win exudes some semblance of complacency. The 49ers, even after trading away DeForest Buckner, losing Joe Staley to retirement and letting Emmanuel Sanders walk in free agency, still have arguably the best roster in the conference. It’d be easy to fall into a trap where they sleepwalk through a few games and wind up falling short of expectations.
It’s not easy to hit 13 wins in the NFL. No matter how good a team is there are always going to be bounces here and there that turn a close win into a close loss. The 49ers could realistically be better this season and still not get to that 13-win mark. It becomes exponentially more difficult if the club enters the year with the mindset that their playoff ticket is already punched.
On the other hand, Bourne’s confidence manifesting in harder work and a desire to improve on last season to reach the NFL’s mountaintop is unambiguously good for the 49ers. Individually, he’s one of the players they’re going to have to rely on a lot while rookie wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk gets his NFL legs under him. While Bourne’s ideal role isn’t as the No. 2 target, he’s certainly capable of holding that spot down for the first part of the year.
Regardless of where the confidence is founded, the fact the 49ers aren’t reeling or searching for answers to major problems after the Super Bowl is a good early indicator that they’ll be able to bounce back from a spot teams historically struggle with. They had a couple plays that didn’t go their way on each side of the ball that ultimately decided the game. There aren’t any major scheme or personnel changes that need to be made if they’re going to contend for a title.
Ultimately Bourne’s boast is an offseason tweet that won’t have any impact on wins and losses. But it could act as an indicator of the organization’s mindset heading into a tough 2020 campaign. They have to get better, but their path to winning the title is clear. If they avoid complacency, beat teams they should beat and pull out a few close wins against the NFL’s other contenders, they just might make good on their receiver’s guarantee.
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