The San Francisco 49ers' start to the 2025 season has been nothing short of incredible. Perhaps unbelievable.
A 4-1 start despite a massive slew of top-end talent missing because of injuries is the last result fans expected, especially with names like tight end George Kittle, defensive end Nick Bosa, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and even quarterback Brock Purdy being absent for the majority of those five contests to date.
While chatting about how well the Niners have overcome adversity would be great (and a lot of fun), it's just as vital to dive into the nature of those wins.
Specifically, who they were against.
In the wake of San Francisco's thrilling 26-23 overtime Thursday Night Football victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5, head coach Kyle Shanahan's squad is now a perfect 3-0 against the NFC West, having defeated the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals already in Weeks 1 and 3, respectively.
For those who chose to forget the forgettable 2024 campaign that saw Shanahan and Co. go 6-11, those three in-hand NFC West wins are already triple last year's total (one win, if math isn't your strong suit).
49ers' command of NFC West goes beyond just being in 1st place
With an unblemished record against the rest of the division after one of the obligatory two rounds against each team, the 49ers now own some critical tiebreakers that could pay off in major ways by the time Week 18 concludes.
Just check out the current NFC West standings (prior to the balance of Week 5 playing out):
|Overall Record|Division Record|Conference Record|
|---|---|---|---|
|San Francisco 49ers|4-1|3-0|4-0|
|Seattle Seahawks|3-1|1-1|2-1|
|Los Angeles Rams|3-2|0-1|0-2|
|Arizona Cardinals|2-2|0-2|2-2|
The Niners' lone loss to date, Week 4 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, was out of the conference, and San Francisco will happily accept a non-conference loss if it had to lose a game at this point.
As far as divisional tiebreakers go, the 49ers have already guaranteed no worse than a split series against the rest of the NFC West, meaning common-game tiebreakers and conference records would apply.
And the Niners are already dominating in-conference games, too, which could ultimately go a long way in determining which seed they get, come playoff push.
Currently, Shanahan's bunch holds the No. 2 seed behind the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles.
True, it's just beyond the first-quarter mark of the season. But, with reinforcements expected back in the near future, San Francisco should only gather momentum instead of losing it.
Plus, with these early wins already in the books, the 49ers have set themselves up nicely.