Goodbye and good riddance, 2024.
The 49ers will be more than happy to put 2024 in the rearview mirror, especially when looking back at these 10 instances.
2024 is a year the San Francisco 49ers will ultimately want to forget.
Or, at the very least, learn from.
It’s not hard to look back all the way to February’s Super Bowl when the Niners lost in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs and then point out just how odd and off things felt between then and the start of the subsequent regular season.
From contractual standoffs, injury issues, conflicting rumors and reports, perhaps San Francisco was doomed before the season even began.
While there are plenty of things that went wrong for the 49ers over the course of 2024, these 10 stand out as most infamous and can’t make it into the realm of forgotten fast enough.
No. 10: Personal tragedies
Every human deals with tragedies at some point in his or her life, but the weight of a significant loss can feel insurmountable. Personally, when I lost my wife back in 2018, I couldn’t bid farewell to that year fast enough.
Cornerback Charvarius Ward and left tackle Trent Williams each lost children during the regular season, while offensive line coach Chris Foerster’s wife passed away just prior to the Super Bowl.
Tack on wide receiver Ricky Pearsall surviving a gunshot wound on Aug. 31 in an attempted robbery, and it doesn’t take much to realize the personal toll placed on key figures within the organization.
Awful.
No. 9: Jake Moody’s regression
Kicker Jake Moody had his inconsistencies his rookie year but nevertheless finished with a respectable 84-percent conversion rate in 2023.
2024, however, has been anything but.
True, a high-ankle sprain that cost him three games also likely hindered his kicking abilities, and head coach Kyle Shanahan cited that as a primary reason for the specialist’s regression.
But, there’s no getting around the fact Moody’s 71.97 field-goal percentage through 17 weeks is far from par, and he’s carried a significant portion of the blame for all that’s gone wrong in 2024.
No. 8: Brandon Aiyuk’s contractual and trade dramas
Few other offseason topics dominated Niners headlines more than everything surrounding wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and his contract extension talks.
Standoffs, cryptic social media posts, trade rumors and more made for a full headache, and it certainly appeared as if the distraction bled over into the 2020 first-round NFL Draft pick’s 2024 campaign.
Souring things even more, Aiyuk didn’t have much of a chance to live up to his new contract, suffering a torn ACL and MCL in the Week 7 loss to KC.
No. 7: The 49ers’ other contractual hold-outs
Aiyuk wasn’t the only player seeking more money during the offseason. Both Williams and wide receiver Christian McCaffrey had relatively high-profile talks with San Francisco to increase their already-massive contracts.
McCaffrey’s conversations passed relatively quickly, but Williams’ bled almost into the regular season.
Both have since landed on injured reserve. And, in McCaffrey’s case (more on him in a bit), he was only able to appear in three games.
No. 6: Special teams haunting the 49ers
Moody is just part of what’s been an atrocious season for the 49ers’ third phase of the game, special teams.
Perhaps an ominous sign occurred in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings when punter Mitch Wishnowsky’s punt attempt was blocked. Almost every subsequent week, this unit gave up or committed some ghastly gaffe that proved costly.
Seldom-discussed special teams coordinator Brian Schneider suddenly finds himself in the crosshairs, as does Moody.
But, considering how atrocious things have been for special teams, at least there’s only one direction to go in 2025.
No. 5: All those blown 4th-quarter leads
Special teams certainly influenced the Niners’ paltry record and elimination from the playoffs, but it’s not the sole explanation.
Blowing fourth-quarter leads is a bigger explanation, honestly.
Let’s look at the three within the NFC West: Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams, Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals and Week 11 against the Seattle Seahawks. Had San Francisco held onto those late leads, it would have had a 4-1 divisional record and would also likely be leading the division en route to the playoffs again.
But, the 49ers didn’t hold onto those leads. And they’ll be watching January football from the couch as a direct result.
No. 4: Deebo Samuel’s regression
He might not be the Niners fanbase’s No. 1 receptor of vitriol this season, but wide receiver Deebo Samuel certainly didn’t earn many new fans over the course of 2024.
At a point when San Francisco needed the 2021 All-Pro to step up amid injuries to Aiyuk and McCaffrey, Samuel largely disappointed, boasting just 665 receiving yards and two touchdowns over 14 games while becoming almost a non-factor on the ground, averaging only 3.1 yards per carry during that span.
Highlighted by a brutal drop on what likely would have been a touchdown-scoring play in the vital Week 15 game against Los Angeles, Samuel appears to be nothing like the dynamic superstar he was not that long ago.
That paints an uncertain future for the one-time fan-favorite.
No. 3: The whole De’Vondre Campbell experiment
He might be the No. 1 reason why the 49ers and their fans prefer to forget 2024 as a whole, but linebacker De’Vondre Campbell isn’t the main reason why the year ended in disappointment.
Not even the top choice for the Niners to fill in for Greenlaw, Campbell didn’t exactly wow when taking on a seat-warming role for the first half of the year, struggling in coverage and only occasionally making the splash play.
Of course, fans and his teammates won’t soon forget how he literally quit on his team upon Greenlaw’s return, leaving the field in that same Week 15 game, which earned him not only a season-ending suspension from San Francisco but also the vitriol of teammates and NFL analysts alike.
As tight end George Kittle alluded to after the incident, the 49ers can only hope to never have a player do such a thing while wearing their uniform again.
No. 2: All those brutal 49ers injuries
2020 was bad. 2024 was, too. And they both followed Super Bowl losses (maybe that’s the trend).
Aiyuk, McCaffrey, Williams and Greenlaw ended up suffering season-ending injuries, while other impact players like Ward, Samuel, running back Jordan Mason, quarterback Brock Purdy and defensive end Nick Bosa missed varying lengths of time because of one setback or another.
Through Week 16, the Niners have reported a player on injured reserve for 140 instances (a player missing a game while on IR counts as one instance).
Putting things into perspective, San Francisco did this a total of 118 times last season, including all three postseason games.
It’s a noticeable difference, but not all injuries are equal.
No. 1: Losing Christian McCaffrey for (most of) 2024
One can only wonder if McCaffrey wasn’t dealing with Achilles tendinitis entering the regular season, which kept him out of the lineup for the first eight weeks.
Sure, that led to Mason’s ascent, and the 49ers still managed to have an effective ground game. But their red-zone woes were highlighted by CMC’s absence, and paired with Aiyuk also being out for most of the year, the Niners offense as a whole was beset by McCaffrey’s injuries.
True, McCaffrey returned midseason and appeared to regain his form early in Week 13 against the Buffalo Bills, only to suffer a PCL injury in that game that resulted in yet another trip to IR.
Any team losing the reigning Offensive Player of the Year would suffer his loss, and the Niners know that all too well.
Hopefully, both for McCaffrey and San Francisco, 2025 winds up being an entirely different story.