The rise of the 49ers into a superteam over the past two years is rightly credited to the impressive coaching of Jim Harbaugh and the improvements of their talented young core of players. There's a third factor that's often gone ignored, and it's health. San Francisco has been a staggeringly healthy team the past two seasons, with the Football Outsiders AGL metric ranking them as literally the healthiest team in football in 2012. Heck, sometimes, even the few injuries they've had have helped; Alex Smith's concussion created a spot for Kaepernick. The few traumatic long-term injuries they've dealt with have been to bit parts: Second wideouts Josh Morgan (2011) and Mario Manningham (2012) have missed half-seasons, while rotation linebacker Parys Haralson missed the entire 2012 campaign after tearing his triceps during the preseason. This team just hasn't had to deal with this sort of injury to this valuable of a player during the Harbaugh era.
