It hasn’t been the offseason many fans expected so far for the 49ers.
It’s been a different offseason than many expected for the San Francisco 49ers, as they let a large contingent of players walk in free agency, while making minimal additions to the roster thus far.
Now, it’s on to the draft for the 49ers, who shed a good amount of salary this offseason, lowering their spend for the first time in a few years as they reset ahead of the upcoming season.
However, as San Francisco pivots, the expectations remain the same for head coach Kyle Shanahan, only in a different way.
“I don’t think [the cuts in spending] is about lowering expectations,” Shanahan said on Tuesday at the annual meetings in Florida. “It’s kind of the position your team’s in. We lost the Super Bowl in overtime before, last year. That’s all anyone can think about [last year]. The offseason, you’re not even thinking about. You’re thinking about getting to Week 1, and that’s kind of how it was for us last year when we took our shot.
“This year, we had a bad year. We didn’t do good. We didn’t make the playoffs. So all we’re talking about is: how do we get back to playing good football? And we’ve known we lost a number of players, but what we look at here is, I don’t think about necessarily the season’s expectations. I think about how good we can get in the draft, how many people we can add in that. Then, you try to build it throughout phase one, phase two, phase three.”
The mindset has made the draft even more important for the 49ers, as they must find ways to replace the players they lost, while also shoring up the holes that cost them in a disappointing season last year.
San Francisco has struggled in the draft in past years, failing to find enough contributors in their 2022 and 2023 drafts, although they’re off to a good start with their 2024 draft class.
They’ll need to build off that success with some more in the 2025 draft class, starting off with the No. 11 pick, as they look to quickly transition back into a contender, potentially as early as next year.
The 49ers are still seen as the favorites to win the AFC in 2025. So, the expectations haven’t changed. But, their process to rebuilding has, as the 49ers are resetting back to focusing on the draft after accumulating too many bigger contracts.
Now, the lack of spending for the 49ers should be a topic of concern if it continues, although the team’s brass acknowledged that they’ll likely return to the top five in cash spend after an extension for quarterback Brock Purdy is done.
San Francisco still has a good core of players, headlined by Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Deommodore Lenoir, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, and Brandon Aiyuk. So, there are the building blocks in place to still make the playoffs this year.
As long as the 49ers have another successful draft, the expectations shouldn’t be lowered for the 2025 season. But, the pressure is on.