Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Monday, May 19, 2025
It was a productive weekend for the San Francisco 49ers after they locked up their franchise quarterback to an extension. Fred Warner is next…
2025 NFL schedule release: Judging overreactions to matchups
Flip the calendar back a year and the 49ers were one of the strongest favorites to reach or even win the Super Bowl. They were on a three-year streak of advancing at least to the NFC Championship Game and had just lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs in overtime. But a stunning rash of injuries — most notably to star running back Christian McCaffrey — sunk San Francisco’s 2024 season. The Niners finished 6-11 and in last place in the NFC West.
This year, the 49ers project to have the league’s easiest 17-game slate. Their 2025 opponents combined for a .415 win percentage in 2024. Their nondivision home games are against the Falcons, Panthers, Jaguars, Titans and Bears, and their nondivision away games are against the Browns, Texans, Colts, Saints, Buccaneers and Giants. There are just two 2024 playoff teams on San Francisco’s out-of-division schedule this season (Texans and Buccaneers), and the only in-division games it will play against 2024 playoff teams are the two versus the Rams.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Oh, it’s totally fair to expect the 49ers to bounce back and be a contender this season. During the Kyle Shanahan era, they’ve been exactly that whenever they’ve been able to avoid the kind of terrible injury luck they had last season. But it’s important to remember how much has changed in San Francisco this offseason.
The Niners have said goodbye to wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr., guard Aaron Banks, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, cornerback Charvarius Ward and safety Talanoa Hufanga. Nearly half of the starting lineup from the Super Bowl they played in 15 months ago is no longer on the team. They still have Brock Purdy at quarterback, and getting McCaffrey, wideout Brandon Aiyuk and left tackle Trent Williams back healthy will certainly help. But it’s not fair to expect the 2025 49ers to just snap back to what they were in 2023.
Also, the past three teams that entered the season with the “easiest” schedule (again, according to previous campaign’s winning percentages) all finished with losing records. That tells you a lot about the relevancy of having the “easiest” schedule.
Caitlin Clark Had No Words for 49ers Star After Fever Blow Out Sky
In the process, Clark made WNBA history by becoming the fastest player to ever register three career triple-doubles. The former Iowa superstar’s latest feat drew all sorts of reactions on social media, including one from San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle, who thought it was a ”decent start” from Clark.
The Fever guard caught wind of Kittle’s shoutout, and she acknowledged the same by sharing the Niners TE’s post via her Instagram stories.
Contract in hand, it’s time for 49ers’ Brock Purdy to be Mr. Eminent, not ‘Mr. Irrelevant’
To say Purdy needs to now start earning his dough would be bogus considering the final pick of the 2022 NFL draft has banked about $2.6 million – total – during his first three seasons as a professional, a figure many of the NIL-enriched QB1s from the Power Four college football conferences would sneer at. Still, after years of thriving with passers who didn’t command top dollar – Jimmy Garoppolo also led San Francisco to the Super Bowl – Purdy does need to affirm that GM John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan were right to fully invest in a player basically no one wanted coming out of Iowa State.
The Niners have been receiving offers for the past few months, and York said in March at the annual league meeting that his family had been considering a sale of up to 10% of its ownership stake. At the time, he called it a “family asset allocation decision” based on the wants and needs of various family members.
“It’s just one of those things where if there’s an opportunity that makes sense, we would always explore that, but I’m not sure what we’re going to end up doing,” York said then. “And if we do, we would try to find the right people who would help bolster everything that we’re doing in and around the team, on the field, off the field, and just make sure that we had good partners that are with us.”
All three of the reported buyers have venture capital backgrounds. Vinod Khosla is co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, California. Byron Deeter is a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners in Redwood City and San Francisco, and William Griffith is a partner at Iconiq Capital in San Francisco.
2. San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers have to be excited about their offense this year based purely on improved health.
Running back Christian McCaffrey, quarterback Brock Purdy, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, tight end George Kittle and left tackle Trent Williams all missed games last season because of injuries. Despite all of the unit’s biggest names being dinged at one point or another, San Francisco still finished fourth overall in total offense.
The ability to consistently field an effective and productive offense serves as a testament to head coach/play-caller Kyle Shanahan and how good he is at devising his scheme.
Granted, Deebo Samuel is no longer with the Niners after being traded to the Washington Commanders. However, McCaffrey playing more than four games after dealing with Achilles tendonitis and a torn PCL, as well as first-round wide receiver Ricky Pearsall being with the team for a full offseason, more than makes up and surpasses that loss.
The Niners may not be as explosive as other offenses. No unit is better prepared or coached, though.