The 49ers accomplished a rare feat with their 26-21 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at Caesars Superdome, which could prove to be a good omen going forward.
San Francisco became the first team to open the season with consecutive road wins with two different starting quarterbacks since 1988, when the 49ers started 2-0 with Week 1 and 2 starts from Joe Montana and Steve Young, respectively. The Red and Gold finished with a 10-6 record that season and went on to win Super Bowl XXIII, their third championship in franchise history.
The last team to start the season with two consecutive wins with different starting quarterbacks, regardless of location, were the Minnesota Vikings in 2016 with Shaun Hill and Sam Bradford. The Vikings finished 8-8 that season and missed the NFL playoffs.
Backup quarterback Mac Jones started Sunday in place of Brock Purdy, who initially was expected to miss multiple games with a toe injury, but has a chance to play in Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals, per Kyle Shanahan.
Jones, the fifth-year quarterback out of Alabama, completed 26 of his 39 pass attempts for 279 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He was not blemish-free, however. Jones had one turnover in the game, losing a fumble in the third quarter, allowing the Saints to score a touchdown and close the deficit to two points.
More importantly for the 49ers, Jones led the offense to two scoring drives in the second half to give them the cushion they needed to improve to 2-0 in the 2025 campaign.
It’s the seventh time the 49ers started 2-0 with back-to-back road wins, per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press. In those previous six seasons, the 49ers reached the Super Bowl four times, taking home the Lombardi trophy in two of those trips (1988 and 1989).
#49ers will look to start season 2-0 with back-to-back road wins for 7th time ever. Here are the pvs 6 and how they fared in season:
2023: lost Super Bowl
2021: lost NFC title game
2019: lost Super Bowl
1989: won Super Bowl
1988: won Super Bowl
1974: 6-8, missed playoffs
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) September 14, 2025
San Francisco is the 17th team since 2002 to start 2-0 with both wins on the road. 13 of those 16 teams made the playoffs, with just one winning the Super Bowl (2019 Kansas City Chiefs).
#49ers will try to be 17th team since 2002 realignment to start season 2-0 with both wins on road. (They also did it in 2019, ’21 and ’23). Here’s how the 16 fared:
Won Super Bowl: 1
Lost SB: 2
Lost conference title game: 4
Lost wild card: 6
Missed playoffs: 3
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) September 14, 2025
The 49ers will look to start 3-0 for the third time in the Kyle Shanahan era when they play the Cardinals in their home opener. The previous two times came in 2019 and 2023, when San Francisco finished 13-3 and 12-5, respectively. Both those seasons ended in Super Bowl losses to the Chiefs.
Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast