2026 In Season Thread

[clyde21]

Looks like we're opening up the season @ Rams but in Melbourne - I bet we're the number #1 in miles flown this year

[CrimsonCrew]

Oh yeah.

Read on Twitter

[Pattersonca65]

Looks like we're opening up the season @ Rams but in Melbourne - I bet we're the number #1 in miles flown this year

It has been reported they are No 1 while Seattle has far less.

[clyde21]

bs, we need to be compensated for this in some way, all the tougher teams should be at home. last year we were 2nd in total miles. this **** is probably taking a toll on the health of this team as much as anything else.

[thesack12]

Not only is it firmly more travel for SF than any other team next season, its also the record number of miles traveled for any team in NFL history.

I'm not a conspiracy theory type of guy, and I don't think that the league is actively stacking the deck against the 49ers. But man SF gets consistently handicapped by things that the league can control. Whether its the amount of traveling, back to back seasons of having by far the biggest rest disparity in the NFL, TWO international games this season (one of which relinquishes the advantage of a pseudo home game, the other of which SF will be sacrificing an actual home game), being forced to practice on a crap field that wasn't exactly close to the venue leading up to the Super Bowl meanwhile the Chiefs got to stay close to their domain and practice on the game field, etc, etc.

[CrimsonCrew]

Not only is it firmly more travel for SF than any other team next season, its also the record number of miles traveled for any team in NFL history.

I'm not a conspiracy theory type of guy, and I don't think that the league is actively stacking the deck against the 49ers. But man SF gets consistently handicapped by things that the league can control. Whether its the amount of traveling, back to back seasons of having by far the biggest rest disparity in the NFL, TWO international games this season (one of which relinquishes the advantage of a pseudo home game, the other of which SF will be sacrificing an actual home game), being forced to practice on a crap field that wasn't exactly close to the venue leading up to the Super Bowl meanwhile the Chiefs got to stay close to their domain and practice on the game field, etc, etc.

I attribute Greenlaw's torn Achilles to that too-soft practice field before the super bowl. Sure, it seems like he was already dealing with an injury, but given how bizarre that injury was, I have no doubt that practicing on that soft field aggravated it. I'm pretty surprised more wasn't made of that after the fact.

[clyde21]

I'm not a conspiracy theory type of guy

you should be

[GS Warriors 1]

Per the supposed leaks, they only leave the west once in the last 5 weeks and that's KC.

[CrimsonCrew]

Leaks suggest the back end of the schedule is pretty brutal. Coming off Mexico, we go: vs. Seahawks, at Giants (not that hard, but cross-country and that field seems to always take out an important player), vs. Rams, at Chargers, at Chiefs, vs. Eagles. Then we end at the Cards. Really want to go into the bye 5-2 or better. That would require knocking off one of the Rams, Broncos, or Hawks, and then winning the games we should.

[clyde21]

Read on Twitter

[clyde21]

Pretty tough schedule outside the miles too, Seahawks x2, Rams x2 obviously, but we also get the Chiefs later in the year presumably when Mahomes is back, the Broncos, Eagles, Chargers, Cowboys, Vikings all won't be easy, I think the Giants will be a lot better this year too with Harbaugh

only layups I see are the Raiders and Dolphins

[CrimsonCrew]

Pretty tough schedule outside the miles too, Seahawks x2, Rams x2 obviously, but we also get the Chiefs later in the year presumably when Mahomes is back, the Broncos, Eagles, Chargers, Cowboys, Vikings all won't be easy, I think the Giants will be a lot better this year too with Harbaugh

only layups I see are the Raiders and Dolphins

Cards x2 should be close to gimmes. Not sure what to expect from the Vikings. It could be really ugly depending on their QB situation.

[arich35]

Yeah this is a much tougher schedule than last year. Hopefully our guys actually stay healthy and we have a shot

[GS Warriors 1]

Like that the league got rid of those MNF overlapping games, those were annoying as a football fan/fantasy player haha.

[clyde21]

Pretty tough schedule outside the miles too, Seahawks x2, Rams x2 obviously, but we also get the Chiefs later in the year presumably when Mahomes is back, the Broncos, Eagles, Chargers, Cowboys, Vikings all won't be easy, I think the Giants will be a lot better this year too with Harbaugh

only layups I see are the Raiders and Dolphins

Cards x2 should be close to gimmes. Not sure what to expect from the Vikings. It could be really ugly depending on their QB situation.

Vikings are good just missing the QB, if they can find any semblance of decent QB play they'll be good. They won 9 games last year with bottom 3 QB play.

[CrimsonCrew]

Pretty tough schedule outside the miles too, Seahawks x2, Rams x2 obviously, but we also get the Chiefs later in the year presumably when Mahomes is back, the Broncos, Eagles, Chargers, Cowboys, Vikings all won't be easy, I think the Giants will be a lot better this year too with Harbaugh

only layups I see are the Raiders and Dolphins

Cards x2 should be close to gimmes. Not sure what to expect from the Vikings. It could be really ugly depending on their QB situation.

Vikings are good just missing the QB, if they can find any semblance of decent QB play they'll be good. They won 9 games last year with bottom 3 QB play.

Haha. JUST the QB. So no big deal.

They're a well-coached team, so they're always a threat. Got to see what happens with Murray, I guess. Probably the best collection to skill players he's had to work with.

[CrimsonCrew]

So some schedule thoughts. Not a great one overall.

I'll start with the positives: obviously we start with the Australia game, which is brutal, but we come back to three home games, two against what sure look like bottom-five teams at present in the Dolphins and Cards. Playing the Dolphins early is probably an advantage as they are doing a huge roster turnover and probably won't be meshing early in the season (granted they may never mesh this year). The real benefit to the two "easy" games coming out of the Australia game is that it should make PUP decisions somewhat easier. At this point, I would expect to see Kittle and Mykel Williams start the season on PUP and shoot to return for the Broncos in week four or the Seahawks in week five.

As I said above, we need to really jump on this season early. It's very realistic that we could be 5-2 going into the bye, and 6-2 coming out of it. We may need to, as it's tough sledding after that. Weeks 14 through 17 are rough.

In terms of the negatives, that post-bye slate is daunting. Lots of travel, lots of good teams. We're also getting screwed a bit with division opponents. Seattle will be coming off a bye in November, and the Rams have TNF the week before they play us in December. Meanwhile, we have rest advantages against three AFC teams: the Dolphins, Raiders, and Chiefs. Only the last one really feels great - particularly as I don't really count the Dolphins game as that's coming off the Australia trip and likely crazy jet lag.

The silver lining is that it's a really tough schedule for the Rams and Hawks, too. Coming off the bye in week 11, the Hawks are at Niners, vs. Cowboys, vs. Giants, at Eagles, vs. Rams, at Panthers, and at Rams. Three of final four on the road, playing the Rams twice and not a truly bad team in that mix.

Rams probably have an even tougher schedule coming off their week 11 bye: vs. Packers, vs. Chiefs, at Niners, vs. Cowboys, at Hawks, at Bucs, vs. Hawks. That's got to be about as rough a stretch of schedule as there is this season.

[CrimsonCrew]

Oh, the Eagles also have a rest advantage on us as they play TNF before our game. So the teams with advantages over us are two division rivals and a conference rival, including two of the teams we met in the playoffs last year. And we get advantages over three AFC teams, which are much less significant in terms of playoff seeding. Sweet.

[clyde21]

Cards x2 should be close to gimmes. Not sure what to expect from the Vikings. It could be really ugly depending on their QB situation.

Vikings are good just missing the QB, if they can find any semblance of decent QB play they'll be good. They won 9 games last year with bottom 3 QB play.

Haha. JUST the QB. So no big deal.

They're a well-coached team, so they're always a threat. Got to see what happens with Murray, I guess. Probably the best collection to skill players he's had to work with.

Again, they were a 9-win team last season with a bottom 3 QB room. If they get even semi-competent play from Kyler it will be a tough out. Also I dunno why but it feels like we always get dogged by the Vikings.

[clyde21]

yea we're 4-8 the last 12 games vs the Vikings, it's always been a tough match up for us regardless of who's there