Can the 49ers Make the Playoffs This Year?

By Ali S.

October 31, 2021

Note: This article was written on October 18, 2021, during week 6 of the NFL. By the time this article will be published, week 8 will have been completed. Info, facts, and opinions may be subject to change based on the results of the games in these next 2 weeks.

2019 was a good year for Bay Area football fans. The San Francisco 49ers had built an impressive squad and made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Though the team did suffer an embarrassing defeat there, the entirety of the Bay Area could be unified under their excellent football team. Then the 2020 season came around… and all of our star players got injured. We finished the season with only six wins. Well no worries, right? We always have next year. Draft a good backup quarterback, and try again. Easy! And then the 2021 season came around… and all of our star players got injured again. The NFL is currently only 8 weeks underway, and the 49ers are already looking extremely weak.

But all hope is not lost; the season is hardly half over, and a lot of their players are poised to recover very soon. It will be no easy feat doing well this season. The 49ers find themselves in the most difficult division in the NFL, containing the undefeated Arizona Cardinals and the dangerous Los Angeles Rams. Winning the division is more or less out of the picture, but securing a high enough ranking to make the playoffs is not. However, even that’s unlikely in the current state of the team. If the Niners want to make the playoffs, a lot has to be fixed. 

Offense

The Niners have an extremely explosive offensive lineup. The receiving core is stacked with excellent players, and the rushing core never fails to impress. But the problems start at the very center of the team: the quarterback. It’s not easy to play the position well; it requires athleticism far beyond the reach of the average human. Last year, due to Jimmy Garapollo’s injuries, we were forced to start Nick Mullens, who performed awfully. This year, we drafted college star Trey Lance (3rd overall) to back Garoppolo up in case of another injury.  Lance has started for one NFL game, and he’s shown some real talent. While they did lose the game, he’s shown that he’s more than capable of running the Niners’ offense. Lance is poised to become a real threat among quarterbacks of the NFL, but not without a lot of practice.

Defense

The big reason that the 49ers were able to succeed in their Super Bowl season was their super famous lockdown defense. While the current defense is but a shell of its former self, it still contains some of the big name players such as Bosa and Mosley heading it. In fact, the Defense has been one of the best elements of the 49ers this year. The Cardinals, the best offense in the NFL at the moment, were held to only 17 points. The only big issue is the game losing mistakes made by some of the players. In the game against the Colts, Josh Norman committed not one, but two massive fouls on crucial plays, both of which lead to the Colts scoring to secure their 30-18 victory. If the Niners are to succeed, the secondary needs to, simply put, play more carefully. 

Coaching

Now, the 49ers’ head coach, Kyle Shanahan, has come under fire for some questionable decisions. A lot of fans are extremely displeased with the way the team is being run, especially on the offensive front. Shanahan rewrote the offense for Lance’s game against the Cardinals, using something called “designed quarterback runs.” Lance is fast, and Shanahan’s plan was to have him run it through for a few plays. The first issue with these is when they were being called. While the idea itself is solid, Shanahan made Lance run the ball at extremely inconvenient times, such as numerous third and longs and 4th down conversion attempts. Yet the outstanding issue is that in his first NFL game, the quarterback runs set Lance up to being tackled many more times than the average quarterback. He found himself injured the day after the game, with only a questionable return for the rest of the week. Fans believe that this could have been avoided had Lance not been hit so much, and the fingers of blame all point to Shanahan. 

A complete turnaround from the state that the Niners find themselves in is extremely unlikely. But the least we as fans can do is remain optimistic. We know that our team is completely capable of becoming one of the best in the NFL this year. But with the level of competitiveness of the Niners division and conference, this will be impossible without completely resolving all of their outstanding issues.