All-star rosters, lengthy playoff runs, division championships, and no rings to show for it.
The San Francisco 49ers are no strangers to this venue. Their squad from 2013 was as bit as skilled and experienced as the one they have now. Donte Whitner lined up in the secondary, Aldon Smith and Justin Smith along the line, and Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman at linebacker for the defense. Joe Staley, Michael Crabtree, Vernon Davis, Anquan Boldin, and Frank Gore were the offensive players. Additionally, the squad featured Colin Kaepernick, a young quarterback in his mid-20s, who had shocked the league and led his team to the Super Bowl the previous season.
It was also clear to those 49ers which way the wind was blowing. 2013 was their last chance to win a crown, as they knew at the outset.
When Jim Harbaugh took over as coach in 2011, they had been a young, energetic group that asked, “Whooooo’s got it better than us?” They had made it all the way to the Super Bowl a year later.
However, by 2013, Harbaugh’s strict methods had gotten old and the slogans had become trite. The players of 2013 were more mature, experienced, and focused. They carried a burden at the start of the year. The squad never bounced back from the big boulder that they had been attempting to push up the hill for three seasons when it fell back on them in Seattle. The window of championship had slammed shut.
There are big differences between then and now, of course.
The 2013 team struggled not just with time constraints but also with internal discord between the front office and coaching staff. It caused a roster devoid of youthful prospects and ultimately led to Harbaugh’s firing in 2014. There were no deserving successors when Willis, Whitner, the Smiths, Crabtree, and Gore left during the course of the following year for various reasons. From 2015 to 2017, San Francisco won just 13 games as a result of their inability to rebuild.
That is not a problem for the current 49ers, who will practice for the first time at training camp on Wednesday. Eight years into their marriage, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are still warm and cordial, in contrast to the de facto Cold War that existed ten years ago between Harbaugh and general manager Trent Baalke. They get along well, collaborate well, and communicate frequently. They play a game of catch before every practice because they are brothers.
The front office-coaching link is therefore at its best point in the previous 25 years. No, there has not always been flawless roster management. For instance, the team miscalculated on Trey Lance, therefore from 2021 to 2023, they will not have any first-round picks. However, compared to the 2013 team, there are a lot more talented players in their early to mid-20s. A few examples are Ji’Ayir Brown, Talanoa Hufanga, Deommodore Lenoir, Brock Purdy, and Brandon Aiyuk.
There also is no bully in the division or even the conference to contend with.
The Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, Detroit Lions, and Philadelphia Eagles are all excellent teams. However, none have the same impact as the Seattle Seahawks did in 2013. The 49ers knew going into the season that there would be a game in January, perhaps in boisterous, rambunctious Seattle. They were accurate. It proved to be a game of ages, one that easily took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl and decimated the 49ers the next year.
There is not a comparable close competition for the 49ers right now. The AFC has the Kansas City Chiefs, who pose a challenge to them.
Nevertheless, this year’s team faces the same attrition as their 2013 counterparts. Having advanced far in the playoffs the previous two seasons, that club was both fierce and confident, but also exhausted.
Not insignificant fissures were also developing in the roster. For instance, late in the 2012 campaign, Justin Smith’s left arm—which he used as a billy club to startle offensive linemen—started to fail him.
“It just wasn’t as effective,” he’d say later. “It didn’t have that pop, none of that stuff you need to have to play. I mean, it was kind of the beginning of my left arm just falling apart.”
After experiencing foot problems practically immediately after joining the league, Willis would only play six games in 2014 before announcing his retirement at the conclusion of the year.
Davis wrote about Willis’ feet in his new book, “Playing Ball”: “He would have at least thirty different pairs of cleats stashed in his locker, trying to figure out which might work best for him. That happened every season and at every training camp.”
In contrast, the current squad has participated in three more games in each of the previous three seasons. And last season, there were hints that it might have begun to have an impact.
By the time the 2023 regular season concluded, Arik Armstead, George Kittle, Dre Greenlaw, and Charvarius Ward were nursing injuries. During the offseason, each of them underwent surgery. Furthermore, the 49ers were not exactly playing at their best when the playoffs started. They had poor beginnings in their games against the Lions and Packers. In addition, they had to contend with puzzling inconsistencies in hustle and effort against Detroit; nevertheless, that did not arise two weeks later in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs.
Lastly, there is a feeling that this season will mark the final one with San Francisco’s current formidable lineup, if not the final one with all of its stars together.
Will Trent Williams’ last song be 2024? Will Deebo Samuel Sr. or, in the event that his contract disputes are not addressed, Aiyuk be present for the upcoming season? Part of the reason the 49ers have assembled such a talented squad is due of Purdy’s cheap contract. That will change the following season when the quarterback is free to sign a new contract and the team’s free agents include Aaron Banks, Greenlaw, Ward, Lenoir, and Hufanga.
The attrition caused the 2013 team to collapse. One difficulty facing the present squad may be inflation.
All of which provides the background against which training camp begins. The 49ers have a fantastic chance to move that boulder to the summit at last. However, it also brings responsibility, a sense of urgency, and a weight the team has not felt since 2013.
The push begins Wednesday.
(Top photo of Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
