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The 49ers' Super Bowl Window has Officially Closed for 2025

Acknowledging the Super Bowl window has closed is the first step to reopening it.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan reacts after losing to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan reacts after losing to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have been oddly dormant this offseason.

Just 14 months ago, they were in the Super Bowl. Then last offseason, they were extremely active because they felt their Super Bowl window was still open. Now, they're mostly getting rid of players and taking on large dead cap penalties to do so.

In fact, the 49ers currently have the most dead cap space in the NFL for 2025, and their biggest addition this offseason has been backup tight end Luke Farrell.

Which begs the question: Is the Super Bowl window closed? Because the 49ers sure are acting like it is.

Judging purely on their transactions and lack of transactions this offseason, the 49ers seem to think they missed their opportunity to win a Super Bowl with their current team -- that's why they're tearing as much of it down as they can this offseason.

If the 49ers get rid of all their bad contracts now, take the dead cap hits this year and draft well next week, their Super Bowl window could re-open as soon as 2026. That seems to be their thinking. And if it is, I commend them.

The 49ers should have rebuilt their team last year. They held onto the league's oldest roster one season too long and paid a big price for it. Now, they have to take one step back before they can take two steps forward.

Acknowledging the Super Bowl window has closed is the first step to reopening it. Good for the 49ers.

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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.

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