The Super Bowl-or-bust wagon is heading out on another long journey of nearly seven months.
It starts out the same as always.
The 49ers and their fan base have every reason to believe this is going to be the season. Optimism oozes out of Santa Clara at the opening of training camp, just like it does at a number of other team headquarters around the NFL.
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And, certainly, all the pieces are in place for another deep playoff run. The 49ers have advanced to the NFC Championship Game in four of the past five seasons. But two Super Bowl appearances have yet to produce the organization’s sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Is this it for this team? Is it an overreaction to believe this is the final shot for this team?
Maybe. Maybe not.
That topic is a good place to start for the first 49ers overreactions of the 2024 NFL season.
San Francisco 49ers
Here we go ...
This is the last season with the core roster for winning a Super Bowl. They will still be contenders but once the 49ers extend Purdy, some stars will have to go (jlbrockett)
Overreaction: No.
It is not an overreaction to believe certain veteran players might not be around next season.
Heck, the 49ers moved on from Arik Armstead in the offseason and were prepared to release Kyle Juszczyk if he did not accept a dramatic payout. Those two standouts qualify as part of the “core” during the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch regime.
So while other to-be-determined players might not be around beyond this season, it does not mean this is the last chance for the 49ers to win a Super Bowl. The 49ers are not going to completely flip the roster from one year to the next, so while some core players might go, many others will still be around.
And you said it yourself: “They will still be contenders.”
And as long as a team fits into the category of “contender,” there is a chance to deliver the hardware.
The 49ers are fine without B.A, and will race through the NFC again this year (south_lake_taco)
Overreaction: Yes.
The mention of Brandon Aiyuk not being on the team this season is, in our humble opinion, an overreaction.
Aiyuk is under contract for the coming season, and it remains a possibility the 49ers will sign him to a multi-year extension. But even if they do not, the last of their options would be to trade him.
That said, the 49ers still would be one of the favorites this season in the unlikely event Aiyuk is playing for another team.
Their top three receivers would be Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall. Obviously, they’d be losing a lot. But they also have other playmakers, such as Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, to still be a top-five offense.
Even with Aiyuk on the team, the 49ers will not “race through the NFC” this season. Heck, they did not exactly race through the NFC last year.
They clinched the top seed in the NFC with a 12-4 record to allow them the luxury of playing their junior varsity team in Week 18. But, then, they had to rally in the fourth quarter to pull out playoff victories over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.
The NFC is stronger this season. With Aiyuk, it’ll be a chore to emerge as the last team standing in the NFC. Without Aiyuk, that job gets even more challenging.
Defensive tackle is a HUGE question mark for this season! (blinghelmetsbywally, via DM)
Overreaction: Yes.
Armstead no longer is with the team, so that’s a big deal. The only other defensive tackle who does not return from a year ago is Javon Kinlaw. No big loss there.
The 49ers acquired Maliek Collins in a trade from the Houston Texans and signed Jordan Elliott from the Cleveland Browns as a free agent. Those two players combined for 30 starts last season on two very good defensive units. They should contribute to an improved run defense.
Javon Hargrave leads the group of defensive tackles. Kevin Givens and Kalia Davis return to compete for backup roles. Free-agent pickup Yetur Gross-Matos can move inside to rush the passer on nickel downs.
With that kind of depth, their group of defensive tackles should be improved over last season.
Ignoring the O-line will be their undoing (supanove, via DM)
Overreaction: Yes.
The 49ers had a quarterback who was the highest-rated passer in the league last season and a running back who won NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Sure, there is room for improvement from the offensive line. But it does not seem reasonable to suggest the 49ers’ offensive line was so bad when the offensive production was so good.
The 49ers took the lead twice in the fourth quarter and one more time in overtime of the Super Bowl. They did not come away with the victory, and there were a lot of reasons the 49ers did not win that game.
Yes, on that list was backup Spencer Burford’s mental mistake in pass protection that left Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones unblocked on a key play. Burford entered the game at right guard when starter Jon Feliciano was injured.
The fact that everyone returns from a year ago is a plus for the 49ers’ offensive line. Feliciano is back on a one-year contract. Burford will compete for a job, too.
It’s not like there were a lot of options for immediate upgrades available in free agency or the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft. Offensive line coach Chris Foerster supports the idea of generally going with playmakers early in the draft.
“If they ask me, invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns,” Foerster said in May. “And then there's a range of guys — second, third, fourth round, fifth round, even — that we will find starting offensive linemen in.”
The 49ers selected two offensive linemen in the draft. Versatile offensive lineman Dominick Puni, a third-round selection, stands a good chance of becoming a starter ... but that’s probably a year down the road.
Every beat writer and blogger will be talking about how training camp stats are meaningless and then starting Wednesday will lead all their articles with training camp stats (rvaninersfan)
Overreaction: No.
While this might be true for most, I’m determined to not get sucked into that meaningless exercise again this year.
After all, there is no starting quarterback coming off a significant elbow surgery and no competition for the backup job that includes two No. 3 overall draft picks.
Training camp stats are meaningless, of course, because it’s the process during practices that matters, not the result.
A quarterback can complete every pass he attempts, but if his eyes were in the wrong place and he was coached to throw the ball elsewhere, that’s a big negative. Meanwhile, anyone on the sideline with pen and paper would not know that it was actually a bad play that ends up being a completed pass.
Where I will focus my attention this summer will be on who’s catching the passes. The targets of pass attempts generally provide a lot of evidence toward determining which players the quarterbacks view as reliable.
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