The 49ers have answered the most pressing questions facing them this offseason. It took them long enough, but Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk are both set to play in Week 1. But what do the 49ers have to think about before Week 1? Here’s a look at 10 questions they face.
Will Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk be ready?
The whole thing with Trent Williams is that he could supposedly roll out of bed and play for the 49ers. That will be put to the test Monday, after practices on Thursday through Saturday. Aiyuk is in roughly the same boat.
It’s a question of conditioning. For Aiyuk, there will be more explosive movements and more running required. It wouldn’t be a shock to see a healthy dose of Chris Conley, and Aiyuk play more of a limited role in Week 1.
That’s not exactly an option for Williams, though if Kyle Shanahan wanted to be proactive about protecting Williams and getting creative, he could go back to the couple of times he used Williams as an eligible receiver. He’d have to come off the field for a play, giving him a breather, and allowing a chance for Jaylon Moore to play a bit. Maybe that’s something you want to avoid entirely, but if Williams’ conditioning is a concern, that’s a galaxy-brained option.
Who's the starter at outside corner?
For the first time in Kyle Shanahan’s tenure, the 49ers are solid at corner. Isaac Yiadom looked like he had just about won the outside corner job in OTAs and early training camp, but he missed the majority of camp with an ankle injury.
In that time, rookie corner Renardo Green – who the 49ers tried at nickel, to mixed results – showed out at his traditional outside corner spot. There’s a very strong argument to be made that the second-round pick should start on the outside in nickel packages (about ¾ of the time). But in primetime against Aaron Rodgers, who loves to target rookie corners (Deommodore Lenoir remembers all too well in 2021), might the 49ers lean on the veteran? We shall see, but even if Yiadom starts in Week 1, Green will have a role this season.
Plan at safety?
The 49ers figure to run a whole lot of Cover-3 with Ji’Ayir Brown as that lone, single-high center-fielding safety. If you go back to the playoffs last year, he was playing deep in that role almost every snap.
But outside of that, what’s San Francisco’s plan at safety? They didn’t trust George Odum to play there last year, but Talanoa Hufanga likely won’t be ready to start the season. It’s hard to imagine they’d trust Malik Mustapha in Week 1, but crazier things have happened, and he looks electric.
Then there’s veteran Tracy Walker, who Adam Schefter reports will be elevated in Week 1 from the practice squad. That’s an interesting spot to watch as the year develops. In an ideal world, the 49ers could intermittently put Hufanga in the box, basically as a third linebacker, and disguise coverages with two wallop-packing safeties in Brown and Mustapha.
Can the O-line protect Purdy?
This might just be the most important question facing this offense. There’s been some debate about where the team has improved and where it has regressed. At offensive line, that's unclear.
At left tackle, it’s still Trent Williams. He’s coming off a bad Super Bowl performance and is 36, but it’s Trent Williams. He holds this entire thing together.
At left guard, Aaron Banks is coming off a broken pinky and entering a contract year that will likely end in him signing elsewhere. He has been roughly average, on the whole. This is as good a time as any for a leap.
At center, the 49ers might have a major worry. Jake Brendel’s had knee injuries and has struggled with snaps that are too low. Behind him, their center option is… Nick Zakelj. That’s not a point of strength.
Dominick Puni has been a revelation at right guard, but I’ll wait to see him play in a game that counts before anointing a rookie. That said, he looks like the real deal, and should be an improvement at that spot over Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano.
Then at right tackle, the 49ers have their bargain tackle in Colton McKivitz. He run blocks mostly well and pass blocks mostly poorly. That’s their norm out there. It’s hard to look at that line and definitively say this group improved before Puni has taken a snap. He provides cause for optimism – especially given that failures at right guard may have cost them a Super Bowl – but the bar wasn’t high.
Will anyone give Isaac Guerendo a chance on kickoffs?
This presupposes Isaac Guerendo will be healthy enough to return kickoffs. He pulled a hamstring badly, then had a groin injury. That’s a lot of lower body trauma for a rookie before the first game of the season. But, if he’s healthy, he’s a dynamic kick return option. The question is whether anyone will actually give him, or anyone, clean kickoff opportunities.
The prevailing logic is that NFL teams will largely try and kick the ball through the back of the end zone rather than risk a long kickoff return. Kyle Shanahan intimated as much. But if they give Guerendo (or Jordan Mason, or maybe even Deebo Samuel) a chance, it could be electric.
Can this defense stop the run?
The Detroit Lions, amongst others, gapped this team into oblivion. Detroit – often running “duo” (a gap scheme inside run) and split zone run plays that utilized interior double teams before climbing to second-level blocks – ran the 49ers into the ground in the first half of the conference championship.
If Josh Reynolds caught a couple passes and Jared Goff was a little better than Jared Goff, the Lions would have (and should have) run away with things. The reason they were about to is because of the run game.
The 49ers, and their wide-nine scheme on the defensive line, are very susceptible to gap-oriented run games as well as screens. If they don’t have a defensive tackle capable of holding and occasionally splitting double teams, you get into a situation where the defensive ends are discarded, and interior offensive linemen can take their pick on how to get vertical. Arik Armstead, who is not a great run defender, held the 49ers’ run defense together.
Javon Hargrave is a below-average run defender. Jordan Elliott is huge, but deeply unreliable in the run game. His leverage is constantly used against him. The only nose tackle type the 49ers really had was Kalia Davis, and he's out for at least the first four weeks.
The 49ers’ run game hopes may rely on the 29-year-old Maliek Collins. He graded out by Pro Football Focus as a terrible run defender on the season, but that doesn’t tell the full picture. Down the stretch, from Week 10 on, he was a plus run defender.
He can take on double teams and discard them, and he is a constant force in the pass game. San Francisco may have gotten a cheap upgrade at defensive tackle with him. But even as someone high on him (he was a menace against the Jets last year), the 49ers are betting quite a lot on a mostly pass-rush-oriented defensive tackle with eight years of mileage under his belt.
Will the new veteran additions on defense work out?
This includes Collins, as mentioned above. But the 49ers invested big on defensive line in Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos, and are betting on the injury-riddled De'Vondre Campbell next to Fred Warner.
Floyd has always produced in his career, with four-straight seasons of 9.0-plus sacks. But the tape is not kind. He has a very limited repertoire of moves, and that's a bit worrisome for a 32-year-old edge rusher who has been, objectively, declining.
The same can be asked of De'Vondre Campbell, entering his ninth season with a lengthy injury history. His veteran savvy and size bode well, but over the course of a season, there's reason for concern. He hasn't been anywhere near the same since his All-Pro 2021 season. But he has had a solid camp.
As for Yetur Gross-Matos, he's a total unknown. The 49ers brought him in, in an ideal world, as an edge-setting presence with some athleticism and pass rush upside. They needed a large body in the run game with Clelin Ferrell gone, and the 26-year-old Gross-Matos is an upside swing there. But through four seasons in Carolina, he's still relatively unpolished. They'll have to see with Kris Kocurek can get out of him.
Will this team stay healthy enough?
This is a question without an answer. But it will, in all likelihood, define this season for one of the oldest rosters in football. They got very lucky with injuries last season. Will the same be true this year? History and a league-worst rest disadvantage are not on their side.
How much better can Brock Purdy get?
This is not just a question about this season, but about the entire future of the 49ers under Shanahan. If Purdy improves upon his 2023 performance, he's going to get a north of $55 million-per-year deal. That's just the reality. That's the market.
And while his near-MVP performance might be considered a fluke by those obsessive with draft status and the need for top-level quarterbacks to have ICBMs for arms, the reality is that Purdy is an excellent quarterback. His pre- and post-snap anticipation and ability to read defenses and attack them is outstanding.
And what separates him into being potentially better than just good long term is that 99th percentile pocket awareness and short area quickness. He has an uncanny feel for pressure and the burst to escape and run when he needs to. And he's got just enough arm strength, and gall, to take the deep shots that are there. That feel, short-area quickness and huck it mentality have elevated this offsense.
With no offseason rehab, there's every reason to believe that he should continue to improve. What could get in the way of that? That same huck it mentality that elevates this offense. His obsession with playmaking can backfire, and he doesn't have the elite arm strength to make up for trying to fit the ball in tight windows. He gets away with plenty that he shouldn't.
But you know who else got away with a lot that they shouldn't have? Russell Wilson in his prime. There is a whole lot of vintage Russ in Purdy's game. He doesn't have the same athleticism, but he seems to have a much better understanding of how to execute an offense rather than needing to go off script. If he continues to elevate this team -- and elevating himself and the team might just require more running -- the 49ers can continue to compete, even when there are contract casualties in the coming offseasons.
Will they win the Super Bowl?
The most important, and dumbest question. Maybe. Probably not is my gut feeling. If they get back to the Super Bowl and don't have to face Patrick Mahomes, they'd feel a lot better about it. But they'd also have a better game plan to beat man coverage, and with some better personnel, ideally Ricky Pearsall. So, who knows. If it's indeed the last dance, you would want to definitively say yes. But there's too much luck and unpredictability in winning a Super Bowl (unless you have Mahomes or Tom Brady... and sometimes, even if you do have them).
Follow Jake on Twitter/X @hutchdiesel for more 49ers content. Read his exclusive profile on Fred Warner below.
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