There is only one acceptable outcome for the San Francisco 49ers this season: winning the Super Bowl.

No more long-term plans. No more “wait until next year.” No more considering coming close a success. No more blaming injuries or bad luck for coming up short.

It has been 29 years since the 49ers last won the Super Bowl. That streak cannot reach 30.

And while Super Bowl LVIII is five months away, Sunday’s 2023 season opener in Pittsburgh against the Steelers (10 a.m., KTVU-TV) will let everyone know if these 49ers understand the assignment.

This all-or-nothing pressure — a force that could fortify or break this squad throughout the season — is oddly refreshing. An uncompromising standard made this organization a bedrock of American professional sports.

I’m glad it’s back.

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Let those other teams and cities revel in making the playoffs or even a conference title game.   That’s all they’ll ever achieve.

The 49ers used to be — and still should be — above all that.

Somewhere in the last three decades, the organization’s standards slipped. There were a few delirious but fleeting seasons under coach Jim Harbaugh where the standard was raised, only for the Niners to revert in the most embarrassing ways following his ignominious (for the team) exit.

But after a swift but comprehensive rebuild, Kyle Shanahan has returned the Niners to the precipice of their rightful place atop the league, going to three NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl in the last four seasons.

Now he needs to get this team over the hump and raise a sixth Lombardi Trophy.

“That’s one of the reasons we came here,” Shanahan said of the expectations.

“Every day we feel it,” general manager John Lynch said, referring to the pressure.

The good news is that Shanahan and Lynch have built a team that would make former owner Eddie DeBartolo proud.

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The modern NFL is built for roster parity and defined by quarterbacks, but — in a nod to DeBartolo’s old forget-you attitude — the Niners are bucking that trend to reach the top.

These Niners are downright greedy, hoarding top-level talent as DeBartolo once did, cost be damned. The Niners have bent the salary cap every which way — a constraint that didn’t exist for most of the DeBartolo Era — to build a supremely elite roster. The 49ers have arguably the best running back (Christian McCaffrey, the best tight end (George Kittle), the best wide-receiver duo (Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk) to go along with the best left tackle, defensive end, defensive tackle tandem, linebackers, and strong safety in the league.

The standard for the best Niner team of all time is high. The 1984 and 1989 Niners are two of the best teams in league history. The 1994 team was no slouch, either. The 2023 team has the talent to enter the debate, but there is a prerequisite. It must win the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the most important player on the team — the quarterback — lacks the imposing size, big arm, foot speed, or draft pedigree of the NFL’s biggest stars.

What Brock Purdy does have is smarts, accuracy, and levels of moxie that cannot be taught.

Does that remind you of any Niners quarterbacks from years past?

If you buy into Purdy, the 49ers are an easy buy at 10-to-1 odds to win the Super Bowl, per MGM Sportsbook. (Only three teams are deemed more likely to win the title.)

What other team boasts elite players at every level? Save for the Philadelphia Eagles, which other teams should the 49ers fear in their conference?

But all that talk won’t mean much come the opening kickoff on Sunday.

That’s when the Niners need to start turning hype into reality.

That’s when a second-to-none defense with an unholy combination of speed and strength and an offense that spins opponents’ heads with brilliant tactics and unmatched versatility needs to manifest on the field.

That’s when the standard needs to start being upheld.

Or as Lynch put it in July: “All you want in this league is a chance; not everybody has that. I think we have a really good one… Now we have to go do it.”