The San Francisco 49ers are set to miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2020 season, as they enter the final week of the season with a 6-10 record, standing firmly in last place in the NFC West.
It has been a disappointing year for the 49ers marred by injuries and inconsistencies just one season after falling short in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl last year.
While there’s still one game left to cap off the 2024 season, let’s take an early look ahead to the 2025 offseason.
2025 schedule
First off, the NFL revealed the opponents for the 49ers for the 2025 season. San Francisco will get a last-place schedule, which means they’ll have one of the easier schedules in the entire league next year.
Here are San Francisco’s home and away opponents next year:
HOME: NFC West, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears
AWAY: NFC West, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns
While this offseason was expected to be a retool for San Francisco, perhaps an easier schedule, and therefore easier path to the playoffs in 2025, could lead the 49ers to pursue a different approach as they look to return to contention sooner than later.
So, what should the 49ers do this offseason?
Offseason strategy
Looking back at last season, the 49ers made the decision to run it back for another season, keeping their core together and restructuring contracts like Javon Hargrave and Deebo Samuel, while only moving off Arik Armstead.
That decision unfortunately didn’t pay off in 2024, as injuries caught up with the 49ers all over the place, while the team just couldn’t put together good football for 60 minutes throughout the season.
San Francisco can’t run back the same strategy in 2025 with players getting a year older and hope everything comes together, even if they do have an easier schedule. There needs to be serious changes, and this offseason could very well be a retooling year to help the team move forward in the future.
The 49ers have a couple of major questions, starting with what they do with wide receiver Deebo Samuel and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. Both players were restructured last offseason and have significant cap hits in 2025, but could be moved off.
If San Francisco truly wants to use 2025 as a retool year, an option could be to take the dead cap hit for both players outright, which means they wouldn’t carry any penalties into 2026. However, if they plan to make additional moves in the offseason, they may need the cap space, which means that designating one or both as a post-June 1st move could be the more realistic option.
Other bigger questions involve a potential extension for quarterback Brock Purdy, which is expected to be in the upper echelon of the quarterback market, and figuring out the offensive line, which has seen struggles along the interior this season.
Ultimately, the 49ers need to find a way to navigate their cap sheet. They could very well treat 2025 as more of a reset year, instead looking to clean up their salary cap concerns to better set themselves up for the bigger cap hits on current and upcoming contracts.
Or, they could look to still remain more competitive, kicking the can a little further down the road while hoping to make another big push in 2025 with an easier schedule.
One thing that’s clear, however, is the importance of the 2025 NFL Draft. The 49ers will be picking at their highest spot since 2021, potentially even as high as No. 11, where they’re currently slated.
After having a number of misses in the 2022 and even 2023 NFL Drafts, the 49ers have seemingly done well in the 2024 NFL Draft so far, as Ricky Pearsall, Renardo Green, Dominick Puni, and Malik Mustapha all look like starters for San Francisco, while others have served as key rotational pieces as well.
If the 49ers are truly to reset, then having a strong draft and more younger players on rookie contracts to build around for the future will be key.
With a number of important impending free agents, San Francisco could be looking to fill a number of holes via the draft, which could be the big turnaround point for the franchise in between windows.
