Niners Nation
Today we compared the 49ers offense from 2023 to the Eagles offense of 2024 to see who has a better chance of taking down the Chiefs
While everybody is debating who has the better roster between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, let’s look at it from a different point of view. Which team is better equipped to take down the big bad Chiefs?
We’ll go position by position and figure it out by using numerous advanced stats to take emotion out of the picture, but we won’t ignore what our eyes tell us. We’ll do offense today and come back with the defense tomorrow.
Quarterback might be the one position where you throw stats out of the window because they rarely tell the whole story. Also, each quarterback has a different supporting cast, and the play-caller is impacted by pressure differently, and more than likely didn’t receive the same number of bounces as the next quarterback.
One metric we continuously reference is Sports Info Solutions’ “total points earned/saved,” depending on which side of the ball we’re discussing. In 2023, Brock Purdy earned 96 points, three points less than his combined 2022 and 2024 seasons.
There’s a reason why Fred Warner is infatuated with his quarterback and why the Niners are going to pay top dollar to Purdy — because of what Purdy did in 2023 when he had his WR1 and starting running back healthy all season; he played like a star.
Which Jalen Hurts will the Chiefs see? He earned 55 points, per SIS, which was still ten points fewer than Purdy’s “down” 2024 season. Hurts takes terrible sacks that are drive-killers.
Hurts throws a beautiful deep ball and adds plenty of value on designed quarterback runs. But I give the edge to Brock as I believe he was asked to do more in 2023 than Hurts was in 2024.
Edge: 49ers
Quarterback is objectively the most valuable position in the sport, but what Christian McCaffrey did in 2023 and Saquon Barkley did in 2024 were nothing short of MVP-worthy.
Barkley surpassed 2,000 yards on the ground and added 278 through the air to go along with 15 touchdowns. He earned 28 points, per SIS.
CMC had exactly 2,023 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns. He earned 46 total points. As impressive as Barkley’s season has been, McCaffrey racking up touchdowns and more yards through the air gives him the nod. Barkley had 40 more touches, or two more games worth than McCaffrey, so the volume is better. McCaffrey was a bigger threat on a play-by-play basis, as difficult as that may be for Philly fans to stomach.
Edge: 49ers
The ridicule that Brandon Aiyuk received pre-injury this season from fans was embarrassing. For somebody who wasn’t getting open and didn’t deserve a massive extension, the 49ers passing game circled the drain the second Aiyuk left the field.
We’ll use the top three pass catchers from each team....
