Let’s start with a mea culpa. I got it wrong: It was, in fact, The Last Dance for that 49ers team.
You can blame many things for that completely errant prediction, but if pushed, I’d put it down to sheer belief and optimism that such a good 49ers team, that gave us all such joy for the last few years, couldn’t possibly walk away empty-handed. Such is the cruelty of sport, however, that they did, and if all things are equal, they ended it quite a long way from their destination. Last season’s putrid 6-11 season will not live long in the memory – unless you like thinking about multiple missed opportunities and late-game heartbreak.
The End Of An Era
For a lot of fans, that pain will have been exacerbated by the 49ers early moves in the new league year, as the 49ers jettisoned several cornerstones of successful seasons past, including, but not limited to, wide receiver Deebo Samuel, running back Jordan Mason, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, cornerback Charvarius Ward, and safety Talanoa Hufanga. Even those who participated in middling seasons weren’t spared either, as defensive linemen Javon Hargrave, Maliek Collins, and Leonard Floyd also got the metaphorical bullet.
It’s easy to understand fans’ unhappiness. The first group of players who will no longer be donning the 49ers jersey are, after all, players who have had significant moments in the team’s recent history – you don’t have to look far into your memory to remember highlight plays from Samuel, for instance. In addition, Dre Greenlaw will likely forever be remembered for his stop at the one-inch line in the division decider against Seattle in 2019, as well as being a heart-and-soul leader next to Fred Warner in the 49ers defense. These players were the face of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch’s rebuilt 49ers – tough, uncompromising leaders who drove the team forward.
It would therefore be churlish to claim that losing them is not important, or that it wouldn’t hurt. Fandom by its very nature is sentimental, and everyone will have their own memories of the great moments those players provided, or the triumphs they were part of. In some ways, it’s sad that they were never able to bring home a Super Bowl. Most fans will always wonder if it might have been different if Greenlaw had been able to play the full game last February, for instance. So when those players leave to whom such emotional attachment is based around, and you look at the team’s current roster and still see glaring holes at (among others), defensive end, defensive tackle, and cornerback, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the team has entered a rebuild. After coming so close to topping the mountain, no one wants to see that.
Difficult Truths
Whether that’s the reality or not, however, is debatable. Of the losses, in my opinion, only Greenlaw could be considered a net positive on the field for the 49ers moving forward relative to his likely price, and even that’s hard to quantify, given his lack of field time in 2024. Regardless, he’s been the heart and soul, along with Fred Warner, of a great defense for most of the last five years, so that’s a loss. It will fall on John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan to find a replacement, whether that’s internally – Dee Winters or perhaps a fully rehabilitated Curtis Robinson could have the inside track there – or in the draft. The organization’s history of finding contributors in the NFL draft should probably make one feel better about that.
Outside of Greenlaw, pretty much everything else has an explanation. Deebo Samuel, while a tone-setter and a fantastic playmaker – no one should ever forget his 2021 run which was borderline MVP-level play – has never been the same player since leveraging his disgruntlement in the NFL media into a huge extension from the team. In terms of return on investment, that contract was a disaster for the 49ers. It would’ve been nice to see him have a redemption run, but you sense that both the team and player just tired of their surroundings. A fresh start likely helps both sides, and while a fifth-round pick doesn’t mean much to most teams, it has been a spot where the 49ers have found multiple contributors in years past.
Jordan Mason, while a good player, is dwarfed in value by Christian McCaffrey, and had more value to other teams, primarily due to his receiving deficiencies. Charvarius Ward had his own reasons for not coming back to the Bay Area, and given what he went through, no one can blame the team for letting him walk, particularly since Deommodore Lenoir has already been paid at his position and Renardo Green is developing nicely. Perhaps the only other slight surprise departure was Talanoa Hufanga, given the inconsistency of the 49ers safety play in the last few seasons. That said, it was hard to determine his value to the team – even the fanbase can’t quite agree on whether he’s a dynamic playmaker or an inconsistent flashy player (I’m more in the latter camp). Even so, given the combination of his injury history and Malik Mustapha’s development, it wasn’t a surprise to see him move on.
Beyond that, the majority of departures were players who contributed very little while pulling in high money. Javon Hargrave was an odd signing from the beginning, and now comes to represent a disastrous change of signing policy, moving cash from the edge to the interior of the defensive line. That never looked like working out and never did. Leonard Floyd registered good statistics at times that didn’t matter, and never became a true bookend to Nick Bosa. Maliek Collins showed why the Texans were willing to part ways with him so cheaply last offseason, and ‘lead’ a unit that was a consistent, hair-pulling-out-frustrating liability against the running game. Aaron Banks was an average player who leveraged the ridiculousness of NFL free agency and landed a contract far above his talent level. To be honest, paying anyone on the 49ers offensive line outside of Trent Williams and Dominick Puni should be grounds for locking up on the basis of insanity.
Cash Conundrums
It’s always hard when a team doesn’t act in free agency, but it seems to hit 49ers fans harder, possibly because of mistrust in the ownership group. John, Denise, and Jed York have never exactly endeared themselves to 49ers fans – their perceived parsimony has always stuck in 49ers fans craw, particularly those who grew up in the free-spending, win-at-all-costs Eddie DeBartolo era – and when you intertwine those thoughts some slightly hysterical reporting about ‘cash considerations’ from insiders close to the team, it’s a cause for some people to be alarmed. There’s no doubt that the 49ers have put themselves in a situation where they simply must hit on the NFL Draft, if only because of their unwillingness to bring in outsiders in free agency to revive a moribund 6-win unit. I understand that. But I think all these transactions, while difficult to take in isolation, point at something new. A shift in philosophy, if you will. And in some ways, giving accountability that was needed.
I have no problem with a team deciding that it’s well-paid, highly-priced roster failed versus the cash outlay the ownership made. I think that conclusion is the right one. Some of the efforts by well-paid individuals last year wearing the 49ers colors were, frankly, a disgrace. The late-season loss to the Seahawks felt like the nadir of a team that had either spent its time either believing its hype, and/or getting high off its own supply – there had been weeks of hubris, big talk, and rhetoric, and almost none of that attitude appeared on the field. There was not a bigger example of ‘talk is cheap’ than the 2024 San Francisco 49ers. It actually got tiresome to consistently read. By the end of the season, it was only the team’s younger players, like Ricky Pearsall, Malik Mustapha, Jauan Jennings, Deommodore Lenoir, and others, that seemed to be bringing the correct attitude onto the field. Things had gone completely stale.
It’s not necessarily ‘cheap’ to keep throwing good money after bad. The only way you fall backwards in the NFL is by standing still, and the 49ers were in quicksand last season. There was lots of money, lots of ego, and lots of hot air, but precious little to show for it.
Change In The Air
For better, or worse, that won’t be a problem this year. The offense will now be fully retooled around a likely well-paid Brock Purdy, and look for new playmakers like Pearsall to emerge, while the defense will search for more from young leaders like Lenoir and Mustapha. The pleasing thing is, and the thing that probably would make this more of a ‘reload’ than a ‘rebuild’ (sorry, I know Jim Tomsula and Trent Baalke forever killed that phrase), is that the team will still have some of it’s best players to lean on.
Because for all the caterwauling and ‘F’ grades by click-seeking publications, the 49ers will still return the likes of Christian McCaffrey, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk (hopefully, at least), and Trent Williams next year – real, genuine, proven talent. Meanwhile, Shanahan and Lynch have also sensibly built a bridge between one era of the team and another by finding a way to bring back Kyle Juszczyk, whose popularity with both the locker room and fanbase should provide a stabilizing force as the crashing tidal wave of change goes through the locker room. All in all, it’s still a pretty good team, assuming solutions can be found in obvious need areas. This isn’t a tear-down, it’s a transition, and the 49ers brass have invoked some of the key moves made by the likes of Bill Walsh (such as finding roles for veterans like Juszczyk) while starting that process.
The Future Is Now
Sure, it’s uncertain, and akin to building a plane as it flies, but it deserves some support. They’ve earned the right to be trusted with this – while people will forever throw the ‘no Super Bowl ring’ argument at them until they win one, Shanahan and Lynch have built a consistent contender that has brought the fanbase a lot of joy. They’ve generally drafted well and often acquired well, and while they may have buyers remorse on some of their bigger contracts, it’s worth pointing out that no one was ever questioning the idea of giving them out at the time.
There’ll be growing pains, for sure, but that’s often more fun than watching something stale slowly rot. A leaner, younger, hungrier roster is no bad thing. Sure, the team likely starts with no hype, already written off by many, but so were the Eagles and Nick Sirianni last season, and I guarantee you no one cares about, or even remembers, that now.
Things were ripe for change, and more than any offseason since their arrival, this feels like John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan’s official second act with his 49ers team, and this writer’s confident that it’ll be fun to join the ride. My advice? Stick with it, and it may reward us. But I’d love to hear what you think too.
Until next time!