F
ootball is back. The preseason is over and 53-man rosters are set for each and every NFL team as preparation for week one gears up. The goal for every team is simple– be the last team standing and hoist the Lombardi Trophy come February. It will be a very long and challenging season, but one that will be action packed from start to finish.
And as week one nears, the first power rankings of the season came out on Sept. 2. The San Francisco 49ers, despite experiencing a massive roster exodus this offseason and fielding a largely new-look team, are still highly regarded among league circles and came in ranked at No. 10 ahead of their opening matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.
The 49ers’ Ranking
Even though the 49ers lost a lot of core players and brought in younger and cheaper players for this season, largely through the draft, an easy strength of schedule combined with the remaining talent still left on the roster makes them a major bounce back candidate. NBC Sports reporter, Taylor Wirth, wrote that as long as the 49ers stay healthy, a successful season could be coming in Santa Clara.
“Yes, there are valid concerns. I won’t argue against a single one of them,” Wirth wrote . “However, their schedule is an absolute cakewalk, and they still have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. As long as they stay relatively healthy, 11 wins might be their floor. Side note: Go look up where the Super Bowl is this season.”
The 49ers lost players such as Dre Greenlaw , Talanoa Hufanga , Deebo Samuel and Charvarius Ward but invested heavily in keeping their staple pieces around for the foreseeable future. Handing out lucrative extensions to Brock Purdy , George Kittle and Fred Warner , the 49ers are not slowing down and are eager to make another Super Bowl run– with this year’s Super Bowl played at Levi’s Stadium.
Assessing the Teams Ahead of the 49ers
Four teams in the NFC have higher rankings to start the season and are all teams that could make the 49ers’ Super Bowl aspirations that much harder. The Philadelphia Eagles , the defending champions, are ranked at No. 1 while the Green Bay Packers (No. 5), Detroit Lions (No. 6) and the Washington Commanders (No. 9) also have higher rankings than the 49ers. The 49ers do need see any of those teams in the regular season but if they are able to clinch a playoff spot, it is very likely that they will face one, or multiple, of those teams come playoff time.
A relatively young team, the Eagles will be in the championship mix for the next few years and while the 49ers have had some good battles against them in recent seasons, they are always a hard team to get past. The Packers are hungrier than ever for a title after playoff disappointments in recent seasons, making the offseason’s biggest move when they traded for Micah Parsons . Detroit and Washington are in similar spots– two teams that are in the very early stages of their championship windows.
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