The 49ers have several players who will be scrutinized heavily as they prepare for what they hope will be a bounce -back year.
The 49ers will be under substantial pressure in the 2025 season to bounce back from the disappointment of their 2024 campaign and return to Super Bowl contention.
Despite significant changes this offseason, the 49ers are a team that continues to the huge weight of expectations, and events in training camp can have a huge influence on their success in meeting those expectations.
Last year, training camp was overshadowed by the contract dramas surrounding Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams. With extensions for Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Fred Warner long since wrapped up, the 49ers have no such worries this year.
The focus is firmly on events on the practice field and, as the Niners look to rise to the very high standards they set themselves, there are a host of players who enter camp with pressure on their shoulders.
Here I look at three players on the offensive side of the ball who are under the most pressure going into training camp.
Christian McCaffrey
It’s not that McCaffrey is the 49ers’ offense. That cannot be considered the case when you have the likes of George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk in the attack. It’s more that McCaffrey is the straw that stirs the drink for the offense, a point illustrated by the impact of his absence for most of last season.
Putting his exploits as a runner to one side, the 49ers’ passing game is simply a different animal when McCaffrey is on the field serving as a matchup nightmare when lined up in the formation and as an easy button for Purdy with his ability to consistently turn checkdowns into first downs.
The pressure is on McCaffrey heading into training camp as the 49ers clearly need him to stay healthy throughout the year to give their offense the best chance of success. Injuries, by and large, are a matter of luck, but McCaffrey needs to go through camp with as few signs of physical concerns as possible.
To his credit, it sounds as if McCaffrey has taken a more considered approach to conditioning this year to put his body in the best position to withstand the rigours of camp and then the season itself.
“He’s patient this year,” Ed McCaffrey told Sportscasting’s Kyle Odegard. “Last year, he was really eager to get to the field after they lost the Super Bowl. He couldn’t wait to play again and probably over-trained a little bit going into training camp. But this year he’s got a great plan.
“He’s been religious about it, getting great workouts in and trying to stay patient. We’re going to blink and they’re going to be suiting up for Week 1. It’s going to be here before we know it, and he’ll be ready.”
It is crucial for McCaffrey and the 49ers that the changes he has made this year pay dividends.
Ricky Pearsall
Pearsall’s rookie season came with an asterisk after the injuries he sustained in a shooting last August rendered him unavailable for the first six games.
Still, a strong finish suggested the 49ers’ high opinion of the 31st overall pick in the 2024 draft was correct, and the onus is on him in 2025 to vindicate their assessment over the course of a full season.
There will be no asterisk in 2025 and, with Deebo Samuel traded and Brandon Aiyuk looking likely to start the season on an injury list, the 49ers’ production at receiver early in the season may rest heavily on Pearsall’s ability to continue his ascension.
As is the case with McCaffrey, the nervousness with Pearsall concerns health. Having been held out of OTAs and minicamp with a hamstring issue, Pearsall needs to show he can stay healthy throughout camp and that he is ready to potentially be the 49ers’ top wideout.
With the likes of Demarcus Robinson, Jacob Cowing and Jacob Watkins impressing in earlier offseason practices, Pearsall might not have that much room for error.
Ben Bartch
The 49ers didn’t address the guard position with a high pick after Aaron Banks predictably departed in free agency, with that decision essentially a vote of confidence in Bartch, whom they re-signed to a one-year deal, to step up and make the starting left guard job his own.
Bartch does have competition for the spot in the form of Spencer Burford, Nick Zakelj and rookies Connor Colby and Drew Moss. However, in essence, it is his job to lose.
The 49ers have obviously seen plenty of Bartch in practice and have enough information to make the educated assessment that he is ready to start full-time, having previously started 20 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Yet, in terms of time on the field in meaningful games for the 49ers, there is a limited sample size to go off. Bartch has two starts to his name for San Francisco, one of which was a promising performance in the snow in Buffalo last season.
A high-ankle sprain ended his season shortly afterwards, but the 49ers appear to be set to bank on Bartch producing the kind of play he delivered in his brief opportunity last year over the course of a 17-game campaign.
It is a gamble for a team that needs reliability on the interior line, but the dividends in terms of offensive production are potentially extremely high if it pays off. Bartch heads into camp under pressure to quickly shut down any thought of anyone else being the starting left guard. If he succeeds, the 49ers can afford to be a little more confident about their starting five in the trenches.