All 49ers

The 49ers Should be Expected to Make the Playoffs Next Season

I feel more confident in them now than I did before the offseason began.
Grant Cohn|
Apr 26, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (center) sits courtside during the third quarter of game three of first round between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Apr 26, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (center) sits courtside during the third quarter of game three of first round between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers won six measly games last season and then lost nine starting players during free agency. And yet, I feel more confident in them now than I did before the offseason began.

Losing Charvarius Ward, Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw will hurt. But bringing Robert Saleh back as the defensive coordinator will offset those losses to a degree. The 49ers defense should be much better than it was last season even if it starts as many as five rookies because Robert Saleh is an elite defensive coordinator and Nick Sorensen simply wasn't good.

In addition, the 49ers have the easiest schedule in the NFL next season. So they don't have to be dominant to make the playoffs. They just have to stay healthy and peak at the right time.

Which brings us to their offense. It lost starting left guard Aaron Banks who signed a four-year deal with the Green Bay Packers. Which means the offensive line will be worse next season.

The offense also lost wide receiver Deebo Samuel -- the 49ers traded him to the Washington Commanders. This was a good move that only will create more opportunities for 49ers who are better than Samuel at this stage of his career. George Kittle, Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall all should flourish in Samuel's absence.

Finally, Christian McCaffrey is healthy for now. To keep him healthy, the 49ers drafted running back Jordan James who most likely will split carries with McCaffrey, particularly in the regular season. James is at his best running between the tackles and never fumbled in college.

If the 49ers stay relatively healthy, they should be expected to win at least 11 games and make the playoffs.

Read more

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News