It’s not often you see a team coming off an NFC championship appearance have a quarterback controversy, so let’s unpack the 49ers.
San Francisco’s defence was a very good unit last season and the main reason they went on an NFC title run last season.
They were bottom three in the NFL for yards allowed last season and when looking at their playoff games, conceded only 15.6 points per game, an amazing effort considering they played three of the best offences in the NFL (Dallas, Green Bay and the L.A Rams).
Despite there being questions on offence, the defence is going to be amazing again.
Despite the defence being their strength, their weakness also lies on defence. They have desperately struggled for cornerback depth and talent, and it looks to be their weakness again.
Their third string cornerback is Deommodore Lenoir, a fifth-round pick from 2021 who made 17 tackles last season. They may like Lenoir, but in a division with Cooper Kupp, DeAndre Hopkins, Hollywood Brown, D.K Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, their depth is a massive concern.
Brandon Aiyuk was one of the most interesting cases in the NFL last season. Coming off a good rookie year, Aiyuk was a healthy scratch in week 1 and recorded only 9 catches in the first 6 weeks of the season.
He got more involved as the season progressed but registered just one 100-yard game last season. He has got a massive amount of talent; can he start this coming season the right way?
With news coming out that San Francisco have granted Jimmy Garoppolo’s management to seek a trade, the starting quarterback job looks to be Trey Lance’s.
Considering the franchise traded three first round picks for Lance and are now trading the person who took them to a Superbowl and NFC championship game in two of the last three seasons, that is pressure. Add on that, Lance attempted only 71 passes last year, making him an unknown NFL entity, this choice is a no brainer.
I found this a very tough projection. I think the defence is going to carry this team again, Nick Bosa is an unbelievable talent and Fred Warner is the best off-ball line-backer in the NFL!
I have faith in Trey Lance and if any coach is going to get the best out of this prospect, it’s Kyle Shanahan. All of this mixed with a bad NFC, and the Niners are going to be playoff bound again.
Win/Loss: 12-5
Talezassian
Roar Rookie
Correction: Travis Benjamin was the wide receiver who was also not very good... Josh Norman was the guy whose only asset was his ability to punch the ball out of the receiver's hands.
Talezassian
Roar Rookie
Last year SF were relying on Verrett and Moseley at cornerback, with a lot of not much behind them: both of those guys got injured and they were lucky to get away with playing Travis Benjamin as often as they did. Their depth is much better this year: Moseley looks healthy and they signed Charvarius Ward as pretty much their only "big" free agent signing. Lenoir is still in the mix but with a year's more development, as is Ambry Thomas, who got better through the year. They've also re-signed Verrett on a minimum wage deal, so if he's able to recapture some of his pre-ACL injury form, that'll be a bonus. Their only real question on defence is maybe the interior defence - they're hoping that Javon Kinlaw will finally reach his potential after having his knee repaired, but Arik Armstead has just picked up an injury, so the question is whether they'll be able to stop the run.
Talezassian
Roar Rookie
Actually, I think it's their O-line which is their greatest vulnerability: apart from losing Tomlinson, they also lost Mack to retirement and McGlinchey is coming back from a major injury. Brunskill is a much better swing tackle than starter in the O-line, so they're relying heavily on good play from a lot of rookies (Burford) or near rookies (Banks), although I do think Brundel will be fine at Centre, since he played on the scout team last year with Lance. Trent Williams is an absolute star, but he can't do it by himself.
Jake Smith
Roar Rookie
They are absolutely one of the hardest teams to project because the Lance experiment could better them or blow up in their face!
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
The 49ers seems to have had quite a lot of churn of players this offseason; not necessarily starters but the next level down. They seem to have brought in players to replace them of similar (I think slightly better) standard, but when the starters start getting swapped for the reserves will that lack of familiarity with the calls/players result in some miscommunication? I'd say successful teams don't change much, but look at the Bengals last year! One starter which was lost was Laken Tomlinson to the Jets. Brunskill has the RG spot but the list of other guards on their books amount to Banks (drafted last year) and Burford and Zakelj (drafted this year and both played tackle at college). The rest of the SF O-line might be in good shape, but I'm not sure if I want to be exposing my young franchise QB to the likes of Aaron Donald, JJ Watt and Shelby Harris for six games of the season with such a potential hole at LG! SF went 10-7 last season and Lance may be an improvement over Garoppolo (not sure about that) but I'm not sure that they are 2 wins better this year. However, they did make the playoffs coming 3rd in the NFC West last year and looking at the sides which would have to improve to deny them another wild-card spot: (Saints, Vikings, Seahawks, Falcons, WFT) I'm not sure enough of them will improve enough to deny more January football in the Bay.