Robert Griffin weighed in on the San Francisco 49ers struggles in 2024, and Kyle Shanahan cut loose with a sobering admission. At the end of the season, it all goes to the same place. And here are three 49ers to blame for the team’s underwhelming 2024 campaign.
It starts, quite honestly, with the recent postseason failures. The 49ers lost to the Chiefs in last year’s Super Bowl. And in 2022, they got hammered by the Eagles in the NFC championship. The division-rival Rams took the 49ers down in the NFC championship in 2021. Also, in 2019, San Francisco lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
That’s four very tough-to-handle postseason setbacks in five years. The losses have taken their toll and the 49ers can’t get healthy, or stay out of their own way in the 2024 season. Chalk this one up to a regrouping year.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan can’t find the touch
As mentioned, Shanahan faced tough odds in keeping the team on course this season. And with the string of injuries he hasn’t been able to get the job done during an up-and-down year. Shanahan said he’s “real disappointed,” according to 49ers.com.
“We've got a lot more pride than this,” Shanahan said. “We definitely know that we have some people out and stuff, but we can play a lot better than that. Having three turnovers both of these weeks and getting none. I think that's 6-0 in two weeks. When you do that and you don't stop the run like we have in these last two weeks, I usually can guess the outcome.”
Also, Shanahan said the team isn’t as good as the Super Bowl squad of 2023 or others, according to a post on X by KNBR.
“We're not as good of a team as those past teams,” Shanahan said. “We're not the same team at all. I’m not going to say this team is the same as last year’s team. And we’re just not fighting as hard. We’ve been trying to find our way since the beginning. Haven’t quite found that yet. But I'm not going to say that our team doesn't fight.”
So when the team faces a must-win situation, it’s more difficult to summon the focus.
“They're all must wins,” Shanahan said. “This was not much different. It was a must-win this week and it's even stronger next week. It'll be that way from here on out. This is the hole we put ourselves in and made it a lot tougher, if we want to get out of it we've got to do something special here.”
Quarterback Brock Purdy hasn’t been a standout
Probably the one thing the 49ers could have counted on this season involved steady play from Purdy. He entered the season with 44 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions in his career. But this year’s he has thrown 13 scoring strikes with eight picks. And overall he hasn’t been the same player.
Purdy said the team needs to be more aggressive and determined.
“We've got to get back to coming out to games and being the enforcers and the dominators,” he said. “to have two games like this back-to-back late in the season, it sucks. But, for us, it's got to be next game up, and we can't be down in the dumps because we still have an opportunity in front of us.”
Tight end George Kittle leaned that direction as well, saying the team needs to be more tough mentally.
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“Football is tough,” Kittle said. “Stuff happens, and you're either going to let it like beat you down into an oblivion and give up. Or you're going to go out there and swing and fight every single day that you have. What's crazy is we only have so many opportunities left but we're technically not out of the playoffs or anything like that. And while it feels dark and gloomy and absolutely depressing, honestly I'll feel that probably in a couple hours, but technically we can still win out. And I do have the faith that we can do that, I really do. I still have faith in this coaching staff. I still have faith in the players around me, (and) I still have Brock Purdy out there (along with) Deebo Samuel Sr. Jauan Jennings is playing a hell of a season, and I'm just looking forward to getting back out there. The only way to make this feel better is to go take advantage of the next week and try to get a win.”
Brandon Aiyuk didn’t help matters
No, Aiyuk couldn’t control his season-ending injury. But he set the tone for a shaky season by demanding more money than he deserved. Look at the yardage totals he produced before his injury: 28, 43, 48, 48, 147, 37, 23. Except for one exposive game, he basically looked like a No. 3 wide receiver.
And how many touchdowns did he score? Let’s see, he had zero every game. So that’s a total of zero.
Griffin pegged Aiyuk for contributing to the 49ers’ 2024 demise, according to a post on X.
“Brandon Aiyuk’s offseason negotiations threw off the chemistry of the team,” RGIII wrote. “Not because he was at fault for getting his money, but because the organization let it drag out all offseason and into training camp. His injury, CMC, and Trent Williams being out (have) hurt the multiplicity that made the 49ers so dangerous with Kyle Shanahan at the helm. Having the ability to run their entire offense from 5 different personnel groupings with the same skill guys on the field who can all play WR, RB, FB, TE, and slot receiver was a weapon no other team could replicate. They no longer have that capability.”
