ESPN’s Adam Schefter isn’t buying the 49ers “easy” schedule.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter went through the schedule for all 32 teams to discuss intel he’s received. When it came to the San Francisco 49ers, Schefter believes the NFL did the Niners a favor, but he’s reluctant to crown Kyle Shanahan and company:
“Here’s the thing. They place the AFC South and NFC South and have a last-place schedule. Strength of schedule-wise, or weak of schedule-wise, may be the most favorable schedule in the National Football League. It is set up for the 49ers to win.
The league believes in the 49ers. They’ve scheduled them on primetime five times, even after a 6-11 season. So the NFL is saying, ‘The 49ers are going to be back’ after a 6-11 season.
And they might be, but I’m just going to warn you: this is a team that has got a lot of holes right now. We’ll see how this all shakes out, but they’ve got some holes to address, some needs to fill. I don’t know if this is going to be a 49ers team quite as good as teams that we’ve seen in recent years. They’ve lost a lot of talent. The league believes in them. The schedule is favorable. We’ll see how it shakes out.”
Nobody would argue whether the 49ers schedule is easy or not. When we went game-by-game to make predictions, it was a stretch to come away with five losses. The NFL never turns out the way you think it will. So it’s easy to say, “That’ll never happen!” in May despite seeing the most ridiculous things every year during the season.
Are the 49ers talented enough at the top of the roster to overcome the holes at the bottom? That’s what we’ll find out. The health of Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, and Brandon Aiyuk will go a long way in determining the ceiling of the offense. How quickly Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, and Nick Martin get up to speed, not to mention Malik Mustapha returning, will shape the defense.
It’s fair to point out the holes up and down the roster. As we head into the regular season, there are plenty of unknowns for the 49ers. It’s why predicting 12 wins still feels too high, even with that schedule. Still, the number of teams on the Niners schedule predicted to finish last or second to last in their division provides optimism for a team looking to return to the postseason.