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Pro Football Focus Ranks 49ers 3rd in NFC West After NFL Draft

This seems fair for now.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) looks on after losing to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) looks on after losing to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images | Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Last season, the 49ers went 1-5 against the NFC West and finished dead last in the division.

This season, the 49ers aren't the worst team in the NFC West anymore -- they're the second worst behind the Rams and the Cardinals according to Pro Football Focus.

"The 49ers endured plenty of bad luck in 2024, winning only six games on the season," writes PFF analyst Dalton Wasserman. "However, they were the NFL's ninth-highest graded team and should be better with a return to health. They didn’t do much in free agency but were determined to repair their run defense in the draft, doing so with the additions of defensive linemen Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins and CJ West."

The Rams clearly are the best team in the NFC West, while the Seahawks are the one team that seems to be rebuilding. And then there are the Cardinals and the 49ers, two teams that are trying to overhaul their defenses this offseason.

The 49ers did most of their overhauling in the draft, while the Cardinals signed three starting defensive linemen in free agency and drafted two more D-linemen early. Which means the Cardinals' defense might be better than the 49ers' defense next season.

That's why the Cardinals currently rank second in PFF's NFC West power ranking and the 49ers rank third.

Of course, the Cardinals usually start hot and then cool off. This year, the 49ers could improve as the season goes along considering all the rookies they'll have on the field.

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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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