49ers 2025 season thread (schedule announced)

[clyde21]

[arich35]

Week 14 bye is crazy but I can at least see us starting the season 4-0 or 3-1

Also what is the deal with MNF against the Colts in late December? Seems odd

[clyde21]

Looks like a pretty soft schedule tbh so I don't complain about a late bye, might actually be helpful if it we capitalize on it and are a PO team.

[Jikkle]

9ers have the weakest strength of schedule and while I don't put a ton of stock into SOS because teams obviously fluctuate year to year the only one I see that might be massively improved is Chicago with a much better coaching staff and a reworked offensive line.

Playing teams that were bad last year odds are they will be better this year because the only way to go is up but I just don't see any massive swings for everyone else.

[Jikkle]

If they have a strong start in the 1st 10 games the schedule becomes very favorable the rest of the way and could easily snowball it into the playoffs.

I mean Week 14 we have the bye and 3 of the last 4 games are at home with the final two being home games.

[Jikkle]

I'll say with this schedule anything less than at least a wildcard berth will be a failure of a season barring injuries being a major factor again.

In fact I say we should have a really good chance at the NFC West crown but with all the changes on defense I could see their being growing pains early on with it coming together more and more as the season goes on.

[clyde21]

9ers have the weakest strength of schedule and while I don't put a ton of stock into SOS because teams obviously fluctuate year to year the only one I see that might be massively improved is Chicago with a much better coaching staff and a reworked offensive line.

Playing teams that were bad last year odds are they will be better this year because the only way to go is up but I just don't see any massive swings for everyone else.

Jax should be better too, I think our division in general will be better too.

but yea, with this schedule if we don't make the POs it's a disaster season.

[CrimsonCrew]

Frankly, it will likely come down to our performance in the division. If we can go 4-2 or better, we should make the playoffs pretty easily. If we go 3-3, we should still have a good shot. Worse than that and it starts to get tough. The problem is, all of our division rivals seem somewhat improved this year, and we're arguably worse (though I think Saleh returning alone probably makes us better, to say nothing of a - hopefully - healthy CMC, Williams, and Aiyuk at some point).

We should have won several of the division games last year anyway, and hopefully our defense can actually avoid giving up 10+ points a game in the 4th quarter. That's where the beefed-up run D should pay dividends. But we'll see. The interior OL is still a major concern, and really the entire defense until we've seen them do it on the field.

[Jikkle]

Frankly, it will likely come down to our performance in the division. If we can go 4-2 or better, we should make the playoffs pretty easily. If we go 3-3, we should still have a good shot. Worse than that and it starts to get tough. The problem is, all of our division rivals seem somewhat improved this year, and we're arguably worse (though I think Saleh returning alone probably makes us better, to say nothing of a - hopefully - healthy CMC, Williams, and Aiyuk at some point).

We should have won several of the division games last year anyway, and hopefully our defense can actually avoid giving up 10+ points a game in the 4th quarter. That's where the beefed-up run D should pay dividends. But we'll see. The interior OL is still a major concern, and really the entire defense until we've seen them do it on the field.

Outside of injuries this season will solely depend on if we hit on most of our defensive picks and how quickly the defense gels together.

On offense I don't see any reason for it not to be good. Yeah I hate that it looks like we'll be trotting out the same offensive line as last year but it's still been a good offense that past couple years even with those guys starting.

I also think Deebo being out of the lineup is a plus for this offense. He just became a drag on the offense and what was worse was Shanahan wasting snaps with the wideback crap and still trying to feature him in the passing game. The offense was much better the last couple games of the season when Pearsall became more of the focus over Deebo.

Obviously Trent and CMC if they are healthy will be big boosts to the offense compared to last season and if Aiyuk can get back to playing at a high level that would be a big bonus.

On the defensive side Saleh is a huge upgrade in itself. I still don't love the scheme but he's one of the best in the league to coordinate it. I expect the defense to be way more technically sound and have a much cleaner execution along with being more creative.

Hard to tell how the defense fares until we see it on the field with the overhaul it had and all the rookies that should have big roles on the team. If guys pan out I expect some growing pains early with things coming together more and more as the season goes on and we can quietly have one of the better Ds in the league.

[clyde21]

Last year we were a terrible red zone offense and if that's not fixed this year it won't matter how many yards this offense puts up

[CrimsonCrew]

Last year we were a terrible red zone offense and if that's not fixed this year it won't matter how many yards this offense puts up

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning. Going to make a post about some reasons for optimism in the offseason thread.

[Pattersonca65]

The rest differential looks much better this year compared to last year

[clyde21]

Last year we were a terrible red zone offense and if that's not fixed this year it won't matter how many yards this offense puts up

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning. Going to make a post about some reasons for optimism in the offseason thread.

part of the reason why I don't want to pay Purdy yet. if he can't navigate the redzone without McCaffrey he doesn't deserve the money, and we can't answer any of those questions today.

[CrimsonCrew]

Last year we were a terrible red zone offense and if that's not fixed this year it won't matter how many yards this offense puts up

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning. Going to make a post about some reasons for optimism in the offseason thread.

part of the reason why I don't want to pay Purdy yet. if he can't navigate the redzone without McCaffrey he doesn't deserve the money, and we can't answer any of those questions today.

Yes, but.... Mason and Guerendo both have strengths, but vision is not one of them. They routinely missed holes last year, or didn't carry out the play as designed. There's a huge gap between those guys and CMC, but you don't have to bridge the entire gap. CMC's true value comes from his ability to do everything at an elite level, particularly as a receiving threat. But if you just have a ball-carrier with very good vision, footwork, and power in the red zone, that should be enough to see pretty significant improvement over what we put on the field last year. I think James could be that guy.

Not saying there aren't still significant questions about Purdy, but the running game in the red zone was very poor last year.

[Jikkle]

Last year we were a terrible red zone offense and if that's not fixed this year it won't matter how many yards this offense puts up

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning. Going to make a post about some reasons for optimism in the offseason thread.

part of the reason why I don't want to pay Purdy yet. if he can't navigate the redzone without McCaffrey he doesn't deserve the money, and we can't answer any of those questions today.

It's a Shanahan issue not a QB issue. We've been complaining about the redzone offense for years long before Purdy was QB.

I think it boils down to Shanahan's offense relies a lot on space to thrive because that's where all his smoke and mirrors are most effective. You can create big gaps in the zone for the passing game and give the offensive line angles to get their blocks. Once the field becomes more compressed all those tactics become less effective.

The red zone is where we feel the crappy offensive line because that's more when you need guys to put their hand in the dirt and simply push guys off the line and this offensive line is completely incapable of that.

Red zone is also where we feel the fact our WRs can't get separation because you're not going to see those huge holes in the zone to exploit and you're not going to get DBs to bite on things over the top to create space.

Not to say the players themselves can't play better but I put the redzone mainly on Shanahan since it's been a struggle for years even with different players.

[clyde21]

whether it's a shannahan issue or a spacing issue or a RB issue, there is zero evidence that Purdy can carry this team in the redzone. and general point is that this offense still has issues, regardless of how many yards it piles up

[CrimsonCrew]

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning. Going to make a post about some reasons for optimism in the offseason thread.

part of the reason why I don't want to pay Purdy yet. if he can't navigate the redzone without McCaffrey he doesn't deserve the money, and we can't answer any of those questions today.

It's a Shanahan issue not a QB issue. We've been complaining about the redzone offense for years long before Purdy was QB.

I think it boils down to Shanahan's offense relies a lot on space to thrive because that's where all his smoke and mirrors are most effective. You can create big gaps in the zone for the passing game and give the offensive line angles to get their blocks. Once the field becomes more compressed all those tactics become less effective.

The red zone is where we feel the crappy offensive line because that's more when you need guys to put their hand in the dirt and simply push guys off the line and this offensive line is completely incapable of that.

Red zone is also where we feel the fact our WRs can't get separation because you're not going to see those huge holes in the zone to exploit and you're not going to get DBs to bite on things over the top to create space.

Not to say the players themselves can't play better but I put the redzone mainly on Shanahan since it's been a struggle for years even with different players.

Yeah, the OL issues are the more glaring issue, but those don't look to improve this year. At least the RBs should do a better job of getting to the right hole.

[clyde21]

i honestly wasn't a huge fan of Jordan Mason, too many missed opps at the LoS, very questionable in short-yardage, hopefully Jordan James can do better in that department. Guerendo is not good in those situations either tbh.

kinda why I wanted Trev Henderson or even Skatt, I see both as being really, really good situationally for us

[Jikkle]

i honestly wasn't a huge fan of Jordan Mason, too many missed opps at the LoS, very questionable in short-yardage, hopefully Jordan James can do better in that department. Guerendo is not good in those situations either tbh.

kinda why I wanted Trev Henderson or even Skatt, I see both as being really, really good situationally for us

Guerendo is a curious one because maybe it was just me but I did think he started to get a better feel of things the more carries he got in a game. But I don't see him ever being a feature back and I suspect he might replace Deebo in the plays we handed the ball off to him.

What we really need is a guy that can be a legit receiving threat. That's what makes CMC so impactfully on this offense is that he's respected as a threat in the passing game and forces defenses to pay attention to him.

Defenses basically ignored the RB on passing downs and that killed us because it wouldn't suck up the LBs to open up the middle of the field where Shanahan's passing game does a majority of it's work. Part of that I'll put on Purdy for simply not throwing it to the RB but the issue has been around for years so it seems like Shanahan only trusts CMC to be a receiving threat.

[Jikkle]

It got buried under the Purdy news but they did sign another kicker so there will be at least a competition for the spot.

I'm more in the cut Moody camp but I'm also fine with him being in a competition with another K with a whole new ST coaches and a new LS. He doesn't have the ankle injury to blame and maybe some new coaching can get him on the right track.

The main thing with Moody though is I don't know if he's got it mentally as even without an ankle injury he's missed critical kicks and costs us games.