There are plenty of reasons to believe the 49ers will go to the playoffs this season. But there also are plenty of reasons to believe they won't.
If Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams play and stay healthy, the 49ers should be good considering how weak their schedule looks on paper.
But McCaffrey and Williams aren't young anymore. McCaffrey will turn 29 in June and Williams will turn 37 in July. Just last season, McCaffrey missed 13 games and Williams missed 7. And if the 49ers somehow had reached the playoffs without them, they wouldn't have returned for the postseason. They were done for the year.
So it's a stretch to expect those two suddenly to play like it's 2023.
In addition, Brock Purdy could hold out all offseason if the 49ers don't finalize his contract extension soon. And they generally wait until September to finalize big extensions. So their starting quarterback could miss their entire offseason training program if they're not careful.
Also, their defense has been absolutely gutted this offseason. They lost Dre Greenlaw, Leonard Floyd, Javon Hargrave, Maliek Collins, Charvarius Ward, Talanoa Hufanga and Isaac Yiadon. Of course, they'll try to replenish that side of the ball with rookies from the draft, but those players could take a few years to develop and there's no guarantee that any of them will make a meaningful impact this year.
The return of Robert Saleh will help the defense because he's such a better coordinator than Nick Sorensen, but even Saleh needs talent to work with, and right now the 49ers aren't giving him much.
Don't be shocked if the 49ers miss the playoffs for the second season in a row.
