There is something romantic about history.

Maybe because it often repeats itself. 

Ten years ago, the Baltimore Ravens were struggling to break through. 

The team was having their fair share of success in the regular season with double-digit wins in three of the four seasons leading into 2012, but the playoff success was lacking. 

Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers were beginning a transition at the quarterback position. 

Alex Smith was getting the job done and helped lead the team to the NFC Championship game the season prior, but something was missing. 

Behind Smith was Colin Kaepernick, a big, strong, young and unproven commodity at the quarterback position. 

Kaepernick played very limited snaps as a rookie in 2011, seeing the field in just three games before taking over as the starter late in 2012, and leading his team to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1994. 

So why does any of this matter? 

Let’s talk about it 

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF? 

The Baltimore Ravens are struggling to break through. 

The team is having their fair share of success in the regular season with double-digit wins in three of the four seasons, but the playoff success is lacking. 

See where I’m coming from? 

Despite being one of the best teams in the AFC for several seasons, the Ravens have just one playoff win in the Lamar Jackson era. 

But you can’t blame him for last season. 

The Ravens' 2021 regular season was doomed before it even had a chance. 

The team dealt with injury after injury that tested the depth and coaching of a Ravens organization that stood tall for every bit of the challenge to open the campaign. 

Eleven games into last year, the Ravens sat atop a loaded AFC Conference with an 8-3 record. 

However, Marlon Humphrey’s injury in Week 11 was a gutting loss for a defence already without several key pieces. 

The final blow came with Lamar Jackson missing five of the final eight games of the season as the team limped to the finish line and missed the playoffs thanks to a six-game losing streak. 

Now, new days and brighter futures have arrived for this Ravens team. If they can just find a way to stay healthy this season, I like their chances to contend (more on that later). 

DID SOMEONE SAY HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF? 

The San Francisco 49ers are beginning a transition at the quarterback position. 

Jimmy Garoppolo was getting the job done and helped lead the team to the NFC Championship game last season, but something was missing. 

Behind Garoppolo was Trey Lance, a big, strong, young and unproven commodity at the quarterback position. 

I could do this all day, but let’s cut the nonsense. 

I’m not saying Trey Lance is going to take the league by storm, similar to Kaepernick a decade ago, but I’m just not saying it. 

Lance feels like an ultimate X-factor because he’s so raw. 

The quarterback attempted just 71 passes as a rookie, and played just one game at North Dakota State in 2020 due to COVID-19. 

With such a small sample size, all I can do is look at what is around him, and see that it all points towards success in Lance’s sophomore season. 

The 49ers are loaded on offence with weapons in the backfield and at the receiver position to make any quarterback happy. 

Deebo Samuel has emerged as one of the game’s biggest threats, with his ability to make plays in space both as a receiver and as a running back. 

Making plays in space is something that this 49ers team has done for years with Garoppolo under centre. 

Over the last three seasons, Garoppolo has averaged 6.8 yards after the catch per completion, a full 0.8 more than Patrick Mahomes at second, and 1.6 yards more than the league average. 

In those 71 pass attempts last season, Lance had a yards after the catch per completion of 7.0. 

Aside from the weapons on the field, Lance’s biggest ally will likely come from his own head coach, Kyle Shanahan. 

Shanahan is going to generate offence, and he’s going to get easy looks for Lance to hit guys in space and let them do the rest of the work. 

I’ve had my concerns about Lance in the past, as someone who’s not that high on Garoppolo, I find it quite alarming that he wasn’t able to play over him last season. 

But one year of development can go a long way, and if Shanahan was able to make guys like Jimmy Garoppolo, Nick Mullens and CJ Beathard look good, I think he can find a way to utilize a 22-year-old former third-overall pick at QB. 

INJURY LUCK  

It’s wild that the more I study these teams, the more alike they become. 

If there’s any team that can relate to the number of injuries last year’s Ravens team had to deal with, it was the 2020 49ers. 

Baltimore’s entire running back room went down before Week 1. 

The defence, after entering the season without Marcus Peters, began to fall one by one. 

By Week 15, the team was missing nine defensive backs, including each of their four expected starters. 

According to Football Outsiders, Baltimore led the league with an Adjusted Games Lost number of 191.2. 

(Adjusted games lost doesn't just add up total injuries, it also accounts for both absent players and those playing at less than 100 per cent, and it gives more weight to injuries to expected starters and situational players than to expected back-ups.) 

In fact, the number of 191.2 AGL is the highest in the entire Football Outsiders database, and it remains the most when prorated to 16 games.

The team third on that list? The 2020 49ers. 

The 2020 49ers opened as the favourites to win the Super Bowl (+1000). 

The team missed the playoffs after both sides of the ball were decimated by injuries. 

The next season, despite getting everyone healthy and making additions in the off-season, their preseason odds to win the Super Bowl were up to +1400. 

And sure enough with everyone back, they picked up right where they left off, winning 10 games and were four points shy of going to the Super Bowl. 

The Ravens have experienced a similar bump in value. 

They enter this season 20-1 to win the Super Bowl after being +1400 to win the Lombardi Trophy last season. 

THE BETS 

So there you have it, the perfect storm for a rematch of a lights-out Super Bowl rematch. 

I can’t stress enough how high I am on the Ravens this season, I like them to win the division (+145), and have also bet on them to win the Super Bowl on FanDuel at +2000. 

I also like the 49ers to win the NFC West (+170) this year, and think they can make another deep run in the postseason in an NFC that is open for anyone to take. 

I’m also throwing two darts on FanDuel in a few special markets. 

Trey Lance to win MVP at +4000 is purely a bet on Kyle Shanahan as I think he’s got a brand new toy that he’s ready to deploy. And if all goes well, Lance might just be on a sharp climb to stardom. 

I fully understand that this is a bet that might either look really good after Week 1, or really bad. But that’s gambling. 

The other bet is an absolute dart, I’m talking the dart of all darts. 

I’ve bet a Ravens-49ers Super Bowl on Fanduel at +95000, because I truly think these two teams have a shot at something great this year, and I like the thrill of betting something 95-1.