Super Bowl-champion teammates Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman have outlined how the 49ers can come out victorious over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
Speaking to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Jennifer Lee Chan on Friday on Radio Row in Las Vegas, Gronkowski and Edelman explained what the 49ers need to do on offense to beat the Chiefs.
“In order to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, their [49ers] superstars on the offensive side of the ball, they’re going to have to ball out,” Gronkowski told Chan.
“They have four guys over 1000 yards this year, all four of those guys are going to have to show up, a couple of them are going to have to go over 100 yards, maybe make an outrageous catch or two in the end zone because that Kansas City Chiefs defense is legit… But overall, San Francisco, if they want to win, they have to show up and play to their potential.”
Edelman echoed similar statements, pointing out how critical it will be for the 49ers’ run game with Christian McCaffrey to pick up positive yardage to open their play-action passing game and get the ball to George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel.
“I think the Niners need to play the game they want to play, they’ve got to run the football, they’ve got to feed McCaffrey because if they can continue to do that and have a real productive run game that’s where that whole offense gets explosive with that play-action game, it’s where Brock Purdy can hit all his other targets, Kittle, Aiyuk, Deebo,” Edelman explained.
Edelman then went on to point out how deviating from the team’s strengths is what undid the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs, where Kansas City’s defense got Baltimore out of sync on offense.
“I think it really comes down to playing the game you want to play,” Edelman added. “We saw last week in the AFC Championship against Baltimore, they ran the ball eight or nine times in the game.
“You’ve got the number one ranked running offense against the 29th-ranked run defense and to see how they didn’t play their game, that messed up the whole game plan.
“So, if the 49ers can do what they did to get here, which is feed McCaffrey, open up that play-action, play complimentary football with the defense, that’s how they’re going to give themselves a chance.”
Gronkowski and Edelman were key pieces to the New England Patriots’ late-stage dynasty, winning three Super Bowl titles together with Gronkowski adding a fourth with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV over the Chiefs.
The 49ers will rely on their explosive offense and the chess match between coach Kyle Shanahan and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo figures to be one of the deciding battles of the Super Bowl.
The stakes are high for this 49ers team to finally get over the hump after losing their last Super Bow LIV appearance against the Chiefs four years ago.
San Francisco has not hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy since the end of the 1994 NFL season, which capped a 15-year span that saw the 49ers win five championships.
