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Will the 49ers Have a Top 5 Offense in the NFL Next Season?

Technically, the 49ers had the fourth-best offense in the NFL last season in terms of yards gained.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stands on the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stands on the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Technically, the 49ers had the fourth-best offense in the NFL last season in terms of yards gained.

When you think back on last season, you probably don't remember the 49ers offense being particularly dominant, and that's because it wasn't. It struggled particularly in the red zone and ranked just 13th out of 32 teams in points scored. Not bad, but not great.

Of course, the 49ers were missing lots of key players on offense. Christian McCaffrey missed 13 games. Brandon Aiyuk missed 10. Trent Williams missed seven. Ricky Pearsall missed six. Even Brock Purdy missed two. And yet, the 49ers still gained more yards than every team except the Ravens, the Lions and the Buccaneers. Impressive.

So what should we expect from the 49ers offense this year? Will it rank in the top 5 in points scored as well as yards gained? Or will it fall off?

The starting lineup seems mostly set. The 49ers could draft a starting left guard in a couple weeks and maybe a starting offensive tackle as well if they think Trent Williams might decide to retire unexpectedly. Otherwise, we know who will be in the huddle.

If McCaffrey is healthy, the 49ers should score lots of points considering he has scored 31 touchdowns in 31 regular season games with the 49ers. But if he gets banged up and misses lots of time like he did last year, the 49ers offense probably will struggle in the red zone once again.

So much depends on McCaffrey.

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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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