by In retrospect there are always signs. Looking back, the San Francisco 49ers certainly gave us a lot.
The constant turnover of important coaching tables, including the fire of defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen and special team coordinator Brian Schneider in January. The surprise of February departure from Quarterbacks coach Brian Griese, who was a key figure in the selection of Brock Purdy by San Francisco in the 2022 design and considered an emerging candidate for head coaching. Less than two weeks ago there was the trade in Wideout Deebo Samuel, and the omnipresent buzz in the competition that some within the 49 -year -old franchise regret the massive contract extension of receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
Even more than the last few offseasons for the 49 people, it quickly became messy. And then on the first day of the free desk – Bloody Monday in San Francisco – it went through a wall.
Via FREE Agency or release, three defenders are in their Prime (Linebacker Dre GreenLaw, Safety Talanoa Hufanga and Cornerback Charvarius Ward), a solid offensive guard in Aaron Banks, a Franchise Pro Bowl and All-Pro Cornerstone (Fullback Kyle-Back. In totality? Eleven players out the door who were starters or giving depth. The other side of the ledger was hardly so fleshy: the addition of a solid tight end Luke Farrell and the preservation of two rotation players in the decline of Patrick Taylor and defensive Lineman Kevin Givens.
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On the one hand it looks like a cleansing of mixed rationale driven by money or age or injuries. On another, it is the continuation of a franchise trajectory that feels as if it is in the midst of a kind of operational reset – again calibrate how the team spends money while it is in the doorway of a Brock Purdy extension that is a difficult negotiation. Things change. Sometimes in a way you don’t always expect. It is a reality that brings me back to a conversation that I once had with 49ers General Manager John Lynch about the difficulties in scaling a super bowl -berg, but to plant a victory flag.
I asked: “That will really be the 18th opponent of the season, right? Just keep everything together when you are there and had all that success and it is just a matter of time before people get away. You hope it will happen after You win a super bowl. “
“Exactly,” Lynch replied. “Precisely.”
Lynch knows this problem, where the surrounding competition always stalks the most talented franchises, waiting for a chance to strip his bones at the first chance. He saw it as a player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos. And he has now learned the lesson more than once while he rose the 49 people of the GM desk. The only difference? Lynch’s last position as director forces him to be a participant in the salary cap, instead of the victim as a player.
So maybe we should have seen this bloody Monday coming. Especially after the 49 people were last 6-11 and the Lynch press conference the Lynch press conference sewn in some warning signals, after he was asked for San Francisco that lasted turbulent offensons.
“We have many good players,” said Lynch. “One of the things that are accompanied by many good players is that it is difficult to feed everyone. You have to make difficult decisions. We are certainly at a point where we have had a five-year-old run with four NFC championships, two super bowls. You have to go back to the basic principles of real construction of the thing. The lifeline of your organization must be strong concepts. Because it gives you young players you have under contract for one [period]. We had several, I think seven players who started with it [2024] Design class, or we expect them to be, they did that. They have gained really valuable experience. “
When I hear the words now, this translates as: we have previously drawn up young, cheap and contractual country. We can do it again.
And now they will certainly have to do that. Because you can claim that San Francisco just continued with fewer than perfect situations with some players, you can’t claim it just won’t hurt. Losing GreenLaw will hurt the whole of the board. Despite the problems with the injuries, Hufanga has the talent one of the best safety in the NFL. Ward, when he played at the top of his game, was a problem that opposed violations had to solve during their practical preparation. Banks is a solid 27-year-old player in the attacking line and teams crawl over each other to get there. Even Juszczyk, who becomes old and demonstrably more more aging with every passing season, was the definition of a culture man who also still played at an all-PRO level.
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There is a reason why all these players are coveted by other teams: because they are the kind of building blocks that you want to pay. The 49 people non-demonstrably did not keep that talent around while in an era of cost-effectiveness that aims to avoid a different season such as 2024, when ownership saved more than $ 334 million in real money to view the seasonal scrench and combustion. Things like that can no longer happen. And Lynch said just as much at the end of the season, when he dedicated himself and head coach Kyle Shanahan as the tandem that it would repair.
“We still brought ourselves into a good position and we couldn’t get it done,” said Lynch. “We have to possess that as a team. That is why we are 6-11. We have a high standard. We had high expectations. We didn’t get there. It is our job to solve that. I know Kyle and I are dedicated as we have ever been to do that. We are not going to be in this place – don’t like it. “
What this means for the 49 people is what we see now. Roast losses that, while you could see them coming, were fast and deep. A Purdy negotiation can take the entire low season and could have a number of roller coaster moments that are comparable to the Aiyuk Extension clash. And a general feeling that this power Be a retooling that is just starting to start a growing part of the schedule with younger, cheaper players to a level that was not really seen since Lynch and Shanahan arrived in 2017. If you remember, it was a two -year renovation project that reset the path of the organization, but also came up with some unexpected turns and calculated games.
Because of all that, one thing was clear: ownership would spend aggressively as long as the results appeared in the rankings. After a hugely disappointing 2024 that may have changed. And on Monday we saw how hard this could get ahead.
