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?
