After beating up the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers have gone from Super Bowl contenders to Super Bowl favorites.

They have one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the NFL, and their offense has gotten downright potent, not to mention versatile.

In the middle of their offense is quarterback Brock Purdy, the last player chosen in last year’s draft who is becoming the league’s greatest Cinderella story since Kurt Warner (or Tom Brady, if one considers Brady a true Cinderella story).

The Niners have an embarrassment of riches, and with Purdy on his rookie contract, they’re somehow managing to keep all this talent under the NFL’s restrictive salary cap.

Mark Willard of 95.7 The Game, a Bay Area-based radio station, compares what the Niners are doing to what the NBA’s Golden State Warriors did just several years ago.

“It’s starting to feel like the Kevin Durant Warriors…The Niners are not playing fair. What they’re doing is not fair…They’re paying $800k for the top-rated QB in football and potentially the MVP. That’s a cheat code. You can’t beat that.”

@Mark_T_Willard | @WillardAndDibs pic.twitter.com/rDsrT54sFz

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) December 5, 2023

During the 2015-16 season, the Warriors won an NBA-record 73 regular-season games, only to see their bid for back-to-back world championships fall short when they lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.

The league’s salary cap went up significantly that summer, allowing them to add future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, one of the best players of the past decade, to an already dominant team.

Golden State then won the next two NBA titles before Durant left to join the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.

The Niners will have some salary-based decisions to make, as rising star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will soon be due for a contract extension, as will Purdy not too long from now.

They have already committed plenty of money to fellow star wideout Deebo Samuel and defensive end Nick Bosa, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, not to mention another big star in middle linebacker Fred Warner.

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