During the fourth quarter of Thursday night's 49ers win over the Seahawks, Amazon Prime Video color commentator Kirk Herbstreit wondered aloud if San Francisco is still the best team in the NFC. As he named some of their top competitors in the conference, one notable team slipped his mind.
"If I ask you who the best team in the NFC is, not right now, but when you look at the roster and you look at their potential, I still think San Francisco, especially if they get Christian McCaffrey back," Herbstreit said to partner Al Michaels. "Who else besides them? You could bring up Dallas, you could bring up Green Bay, Tampa, there's some good teams out there. But if San Francisco's healthy, they're still a force in this NFC."
"Agreed," Michaels said.
The general point about the 49ers still being "a force" in the NFC is accurate; they're a very good team that's going to be a tough matchup for anyone in the playoffs. But who else besides them, Kirk? How about the 5-0 team that just beat San Francisco less than a month ago? The Vikings, the NFC's lone undefeated team, went unmentioned by Herbstreit as he threw out some of the contenders that came to mind.
The three teams he did choose to mention were also interesting. The Cowboys, Packers, and Buccaneers all made the playoffs last year, but they're currently the 7, 8, and 9 seeds in the NFC. The Packers just lost to the Vikings in Green Bay a couple weeks ago. Dallas and Tampa Bay have been blown out this year by the Saints and Broncos, respectively. Herbstreit also forgot about the Lions, who belong in the top three with Minnesota and SF, as well as the resurgent Commanders and Falcons.
I'll mostly give Herbstreit a pass since he's primarily a college football guy, broadcasting live sports is a difficult job, and sometimes things escape you. But to some degree, this feels like an example of Sam Darnold and the 5-0 Vikings still having more to prove to be at the forefront of people's minds when they think about NFC contenders. The perception they entered the season with can be hard to shake.
