Are the San Francisco 49ers a legitimate Super Bowl contender or in the midst of a rebuilding period?
The first window for the 49ers to win the Super Bowl with John Lynch running the front office and Kyle Shanahan the field has closed. It was slammed shut on this longtime powerhouse over the second half of last season with the team losing seven of their final eight games.
Only a year earlier, the 49ers were an overtime decision away from a Super Bowl win.
Lynch and Shanahan joined the 49ers in 2017, Lynch a great player without any front office experience and Shanahan a first-time head coach. They took over a squad that needed a full makeover from a personnel perspective and adjusted culture that was only a shadow of the organization Eddie DeBartolo had developed during the 1980’s.
DeBartolo’s nephew, Jed York, was now the owner in charge of day-to-day operations and appeared in over-his-head. Misses on head coaches since the retirement of Bill Walsh and departure of George Seifert had the Niners drop in the standings like an anvil off a rooftop. The hiring of an inexperienced front office and never-before head coach looked like another ill advised move that carried with it a six-year financial commitment.
Whether is was pure genius on York’s part or the blind squirrel finding a nut in the snow doesn’t matter, what does matter is that Lynch and Shanahan are one of the best and most successful general manager/coach tandems in professional sports.
Now all they need is a Super Bowl win to erase any lingering doubt.
There is a problem with expecting that this season.
The window the Niners had with a solid quarterback that wasn’t drawing a salary that robbed other positions is over. Brock Purdy is now done with his rookie deal that made him the most underpaid worker in America. His new contract is aligned with an amount that matches other franchise signal callers, which means San Francisco doesn’t have as much cap room to put players around Purdy like they did in his first three seasons.
Lynch and Shanahan had no restraints on changing the Niners roster when they arrived in 2017, and that very first year the turnover was dramatic. Only one defensive starter from the 2016 team started the next season on the team, similar turnover on offense had the dynamic duo put their stamp on the team that would rise from a last place two win campaign in 2016 to a Super Bowl in the third year Lynch and Shanahan teamed up in San Francisco.
The team remained a Super Bowl contender in succeeding seasons and in 2022 found a rookie quarterback, the last player in the draft, display talent on game day that few saw before it materialized. A pair of quarterback injuries forced Purdy into action during a game against the Miami Dolphins in December. That week there were calls for the Niners to find a veteran quarterback to lead a team that was currently perched atop their division and had the look of a champion with Jimmy Garoppolo running the offense.
But, while looking for a veteran, Baker Mayfield was a name most often mentioned, the kid out of Iowa led win after win. In fact, Purdy was undefeated as he led the Niners to the NFC Championship Game, a contest in which he was injured early in the action and San Francisco fell to the Eagles who went on to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
Was the Purdy play in 2022 a rookie comet, or was this kid the real deal?
Real deal.
In his second season, Purdy led the 49ers to the Super Bowl, but like the Eagles the previous year, the 49ers lost to the Chiefs in the season’s final game.
Okay, the 49ers have been to a pair of Super Bowls and have their franchise quarterback in place and the six-year deal York put together for Lynch and Shanahan appears one of the best in football. The 49ers started last season as a legitimate Super Bowl contender … and the collapse down the stretch of the season they hope is just a blip on their success.
Unfortunately, it may not be.
Less money to spread around with the new contract afforded Purdy, an aging roster from that young group that infused life into a last place team beginning in 2017, and injuries to key players from recent years puts the Niners back where the Lynch/Shanahan team was when they arrived in 2017.
Time to rebuild.
Problem is, the fans are not looking to rebound with a team in disarray, as they were when the Niners management crew arrived eight years ago, but rather expecting San Francisco to vie for a title.
Not likely … at least this year.