The 49ers are in an interesting spot organizationally. They’re undeniably a Super Bowl contender and have been for the last four seasons. They’ve yet to get over the hump with a Super Bowl loss and two NFC championship game losses, and they’ve taken big swings to try and get over that hump.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in a recent MMQB column labeled the 49ers’ 2023 campaign as an “all-in type year.” While the sentiment tracks for a team that’s gotten so close without winning a championship, it’s hard to imagine San Francisco views this year as an “all-in” season.
Perhaps this is a matter of semantics, but “all-in” tends to mean a team will sell out its future to try and win a title. That’s not something the 49ers have really done in the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch era. They’ve made big trades like moving up in the draft for quarterback Trey Lance, or shedding four picks to land running back Christian McCaffrey. They’ve also dished out sizable contracts to a slew of their top players.
San Francisco is finally at a place where they have a good roster to compete in 2023, and enough capital to have a really productive 2024 draft to help propel them into the future. An “all-in” year means moving on from that draft capital at some point to land a player via in-season trade. They might also be more aggressive in the latter stages of free agency with some quality players still available at positions of need for the 49ers.
Selective aggressiveness has defined the Shanahan-Lynch regime though. They’re in the place they’ve been aiming to land where they have a legitimate contender with the future pieces in place to restock the cupboard. They might make a move or two on the margins if they think it’ll improve their roster, but sacrificing their future to push all their chips in this year isn’t something they’re liable to do.
It’s worth noting, and this may be what Breer is getting at, that this core of 49ers players won’t be able to stay together for much longer. George Kittle, Arik Armstead and Deebo Samuel could all be coming to a crossroads in their 49ers tenure. Trent Williams turns 35 in July. Brandon Aiyuk and Dre Greenlaw are under contract through 2024. There’s a lot coming to a head soon for the 49ers, and their window to win with this group of players is closing rapidly.
There is definitely going to be an urgency to win in San Francisco. That would be the case regardless of contract situations though. This is a roster that’s capable of winning the Super Bowl, and it has been for the last half decade.
Any team that’s reached the precipice of a championship in three out of four years would feel an uptick in pressure to secure a Lombardi Trophy. It isn’t an “all-in” year in the typical sense though. The 49ers surely want to win this season, but it’s clear they’re not going to push all of their chips in to do so.