The Associated Press All-Pro teams are here, and the 49ers showed out in force. San Francisco had seven total players named to the two All-Pro teams, including five on the first team and five on the second team.
Despite that, they have a case for two players to be considered snubs.
The All-Pro nods
The following 49ers made the All-Pro teams, which are posted here:
First team
RB Christian McCaffrey
FB Kyle Juszczyk
TE George Kittle
LT Trent Williams
LB Fred Warner
Second team
WR Brandon Aiyuk (tied w/Mike Evans)
CB Charvarius Ward
The only team with more All Pros was the Dallas Cowboys, who had their kicker and punter make the All-Pro teams. They had four first-team All-Pros and five second-team All-Pros, meaning the 49ers led the first team.
Vindication for Aiyuk
The votes for Aiyuk and Ward are especially rewarding, given that Aiyuk was snubbed for the more superficial Pro Bowl, where Ward earned his first nod in a 5-INT season.
Aiyuk had the most efficient receiving season in the NFL, but was snubbed due to a lack of yardage and 7 touchdowns which were good, but not close to the league lead of 13 (Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans).
Per ESPN, Aiyuk's 3.3 yards per route run were the third-most in the NFL since 2007. Only Hill's 4.1 yards this season and Steve Smith's 3.9 yards per route run in 2008 eclipsed that figure.
Additional context from Thursday's notebook on Aiyuk's Pro Bowl snub, practice returns and George Kittle's praise of Kyle Shanahan:
"He was also the second-highest-graded receiver in the league by PFF with a 92.3 grade, trailing only fringe MVP candidate, Tyreek Hill (93.7 grade).
It's a head-scratching result given that Aiyuk's 1,342 receiving yards were seventh in the league on the 36th-most targets. But Pro Bowl voting is based on stats and name recognition. Aiyuk was behind Nacua, Lamb and Brown in yards (only Lamb had more touchdowns, with 12), while Evans had a tied-for-league-high 13 TDs."
Aiyuk said Thursday he was disappointed by the snub, but pointed to the fact that the players who beat him out have to go through the 49ers to make it to the Super Bowl.
"Yeah, it was [disappointing]," Aiyuk said. "It was tough at first. But we'll see. Pretty much every one of those guys at one point, they have to come through San Francisco, so it's all good."
Oh, and the All-Pro nod is far more prestigious than the Pro Bowl, which has a flawed, surface-level voting system. This is a better honor.
Snubs for Purdy, Bosa
The most substantial snub for the 49ers is probably Brock Purdy, who was in the MVP conversation late into the season, and did not play in the final game.
He was beat out as a second-team All-Pro by Dak Prescott, who played in full in the final game of the season while Purdy sat out. Prescott was 31-of-36 for 279 yards, 4 TDs and an interception in that game against the Commanders, who hold the second pick in the draft.
Even with that, Purdy led the league in a number of categories:
- TD percentage (TD-to-Attempts): 7 percent - 0.9 percent higher than No. 2, Dak Prescott (TD-to-Attempts): 7 percent - 0.9 percent higher than No. 2, Dak Prescott
- Passer rating (out of 158.3): 113.0 - Prescott second at 105.9
- QBR (out of 100): 72.8 - Prescott second at 72.6
- Adjusted net yards/attempt: 9.01 yards per attempt - Tua Tagavailoa is second at 7.48 yards per attempt
- Success rate: 54.7 percent - Prescott second at 51.5 percent
(Per Football Reference: "A successful pass gains at least 40% of yards required on 1st down, 60% of yards required on 2nd down, and 100% on 3rd or 4th down. Denominator is pass attempts + times sacked)
Read about why Purdy has a legitimate, unique MVP case here.
It's hard to say how the voting would have played out had Purdy played the final game of the season.
As for Nick Bosa, he was up against some strong competition in Myles Garrett (14.0 sacks), T.J. Watt (19.0 sacks) on the first team, and Micah Parsons (14.0 sacks) and Maxx Crosby (14.5 sacks).
While this was not Bosa's strongest statistical season, with 10.5 sacks, he was still elite. Sacks are often a poor indicator of performance. They can be generally reflective, but they don't account for pressures, or pressures that cause turnovers, let alone run game performance.
Bosa had a 92.7 grade from Pro Football Focus, tied with Parsons for second-best in the NFL. He was third in total pressures, with 95, behind Parsons (103) and Aidan Hutchinson (101).
Per ESPN, Bosa was double-teamed 26 percent of the time, which is third-most in the NFL at edge rusher behind Parsons (35 percent) and Garrett (29 percent). He was also 10th in their run stop win rate (29 percent) while facing tied for the second-most double teams (12 percent).
In sum, it's hard for the 49ers to feel too aggrieved by Purdy and Bosa's snubs, though both had strong cases to make.