SANTA CLARA — For the last few months, we’ve discussed the 2025 San Francisco 49ers in the abstract.
They’re names on a roster, money on a spreadsheet, picks in a draft.
All the ins and outs of a busy, albeit less dramatic, offseason were difficult to contextualize.
Until Thursday, that is.
The 49ers opened their off-season training program to the media on Thursday (certainly only because such availability is league mandated), and for the first time someone other than the folks in the building were able to lay eyes on the team that is, at it stands today, the favorites to win the NFC West this upcoming season.
And while the Niners only ran through some drills and did some no-contact scrimmaging, they still made a strong first impression.
In short: who are these guys?
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Thursday was like showing up to a big party where you only know a handful of people.
Oh, hi, nice to meet you — I think I heard about you from my buddy. Where is he, anyway?
And if it’s that way for observers, what’s it like in the building? There will be a learning curve for everyone to consider with this Niners team, given the significant roster turnover year over year.
Players come and players go in the NFL — hell, the 49ers have started nine different quarterbacks in Kyle Shanahan’s first eight years at the helm of the team. But there had been a common thread with the Niners over the last five years, and perhaps even beyond.
That thread seems to have been lost this past offseason, as evidenced by how many new faces were in place Thursday. There are the little things like a new longsnapper and punter, or the fact that there was only one wide receiver practicing that has done anything of worth with San Francisco (Jauan Jennings). I admit I had to check the roster seemingly after every defensive snap, because for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you much of anything about cornerback Tre Avery, who made a couple of nice plays.
We’ve been talking about the 49ers’ resetting offseason for the last five months, but on Thursday, the significance and depth of that “reset” were put into full focus.
This team is young. This team looks pretty fast. They also look really small in a lot of spots.
Perhaps the game has changed enough amid the Niners’ run of success to where this is what is necessary to win. Maybe not. But clearly there has been a shift in philosophy that fully manifested after the 2024 campaign.
And that shift makes it impossible not to view the team’s old guard — specifically the recently re-signed George Kittle and Fred Warner — as, well, old.
The team that practiced on Thursday wasn’t nearly the whole roster. There was no Trent Williams (old) or Ricky Pearsall (hamstring). The team’s two starting safeties weren’t practicing, either. Nor were some of the kids who are going to be asked to hit the ground running this season.
So no, it wasn’t a complete picture that was being painted, but I saw enough to get the gist.
This Niners team is a mystery box. There’s enough time before the season starts and likely enough talent for them to be one of the best teams in the NFL this upcoming season. The cupcake schedule the league gave the team helps, too.
But things could go the other way as well. There were some proven NFL players jettisoned this past offseason for fiscal reasons, and they have been replaced not with peers, but with bottom-of-the-barrel free agents and rookies.
It puts a massive onus on those who are still at the top of their game and have institutional knowledge to step up. That means Shanahan and old/new defensive coordinator Robert Saleh need to turn in their best seasons yet. The big-money veterans need to be the old dogs who can show the puppies how to do things.
It’s a big ask, but it’s doable.
And it’s not as if a shakeup was unjustified after a six-win campaign.
However, I can’t predict whether the 49ers will win 12 games or 6 in 2025.
Truthfully, I don’t think they can tell you either.
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And once the Niners were able to reach that level, everything was about staying at that level.
That era is now, unquestionably, over.
Where does this team stand now?
They’re not rebuilding. Not in the classic sense, anyway. But the status quo has been seriously upended.
This is a team that will need to define its possibilities between now and the season opener on Sept. 7 in Seattle.
And maybe they’ll need a bit more time than that.
But in the meantime, there’s only one appropriate definition for the fledgling 2025 Niners:
No one can genuinely say if they’re a contender or a pretender, but they certainly are different.
A few other OTA observations
• Really liked what I saw from both Renardo Green and Darrell Luter at cornerback during some faux 11-on-11 drills.
• I don’t know if Christian McCaffrey is back to 100 percent of what he was in the 2023 season, but he certainly had the kind of jaw-dropping moves and speed that made him look like a man amongst boys Thursday. There was some real pop to his game. (Frankly, I only value that kind of pop in an environment like OTAs.)
• Dee Winters looks bigger, which could give him a big advantage in the race to start next to Fred Warner. Ultimately, we won’t know if that perceived size matters until these guys can actually hit.
• Rookies Nick Martin and Upton Stout looked small. Really small. But again, I can’t tell you that’s a problem until these guys are wearing pads. They might play a whole lot bigger than their stature.
• Take this with a week’s worth of salt, but I liked what I saw in drills from left guard Ben Bartch, and tackles Austen Pleasants and Spencer Burford. Jake Brendel had more of a punch in drills than I remember from last year. They were just drills — it could mean nothing… or everything.
• With Brandon Aiyuk out and Ricky Pearsall sidelined, Jauan Jennings remained at X receiver. I doubt he moves off that spot until Aiyuk returns, despite his issues against press-man coverage last season. Purdy trusts him, and with the Niners poised to be a more traditional passing attack this season (zagging to a classic drop-back style amid a league littered with Shanahan-inspired play action), the X receiver is the most important in the offense.
• Isaac Guerendo sure doesn’t look injured. So much for questions about McCaffrey’s backup.
• Purdy can still rip it.
• Mac Jones throws a very catchable ball. A preseason guarantee: People will fall in love with him as a practice player. But Jones as an in-game quarterback? That’s probably a different story the Niners are hoping they don’t have to read.
• Jacob Cowing has more explosion off the line of scrimmage and looks heavier. His flat and dig routes looked crisp and playing-time worthy. That said, rookie Jordan Watkins is going to push him for snaps — the Ole Miss product can really run a post.
• A small thing I noticed: McCaffrey was running away from a mass of humanity Thursday after another impressive, slippery run, but as he separated, one step behind him — and staying one step behind him — was rookie defensive lineman Mykel Williams. McCaffrey was only sort of slowing down — he finishes every run with earnestness. So don’t read into that aspect of it. No, my takeaway was that there was a big man — 6-foot-5, 267 pounds — moving really, really fast. And that’s really, really fun.
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