All 49ers

Do the 49ers Really Expect to Contend for a Super Bowl Next Season?

Next season, the Super Bowl will be held at Levi's Stadium. Do the 49ers honestly believe they have a realistic chance to play in that game?
Grant Cohn|
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) hands off to running back Christian McCaffrey (23) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) hands off to running back Christian McCaffrey (23) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

Next season, the Super Bowl will be held at Levi's Stadium. Do the 49ers honestly believe they have a realistic chance to play in that game?

They're doing a full-blown rebuild yet, but they're not getting better, either. They just let nine starters walk during free agency and some of those players were quite good. I'm talking Dre Greenlaw, Charvarius Ward and Talanoa Hufanga. Those players will be difficult to replace.

And what's more, the 49ers didn't even try to replace them or any of the nine starters they lost. Instead, they signed backups such as Luke Farrell, Tre Brown and Mac Jones. When asked recently what the plan is for the 49ers' offseason, John Lynch reminded reporters that there's still "this thing called the draft" coming up.

Which means the 49ers expect to replace a bunch of starters with a bunch of rookies. Sounds like a great plan -- for 2026.

Gutting the roster this offseason may indeed be the right decision for the future of the team. And if they draft well, they certainly could bounce back to Super Bowl contention in 2026 or 2027.

But how do the 49ers expect to get better now? They just went 6-11 last season. Brandon Aiyuk won't be returning from knee surgery any time soon. Trent Williams almost certainly will miss multiple games again next season. And Christian McCaffrey will turn 29 in June.

Do the 49ers really believe that McCaffrey will stay healthy all season, play like he did in 2022 and 2023 and carry a bunch of rookies to the playoffs?

That seems to be their plan. Let's see what they say about it next week at the NFL Annual Meeting.

More 49ers news

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