Heading into the 2025 season, the Los Angeles Rams should probably be the favorites to repeat as the NFC West champions. They're certainly the biggest obstacle for the Seattle Seahawks, who still haven't gotten a single win against LA while Matt Stafford is in the lineup.
As for the rest of the division, we can safely rely on the perpetually-dysfunctional Arizona Cardinals to finish with a losing record. Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers are probably the toughest team in the entire conference to forecast. Just two seasons ago the Niners got all the way to the Super Bowl but they finished at 6-11 in 2024, good for last place in the division.
So, what happened to the Niners in 2024? Injuries certainly took their toll, including 13 games missed by superstar running back Christian McCaffrey. However, if you ask San Francisco's starting quarterback, he'd tell you the 49ers were tired. That's how Brock Purdy explained their failures last season on the Built 4 More podcast H/T 49erswebzone.
"And then last year, man, guys were tired... That season is no joke, and when you go from July of training and everything, all the way to the end of February, and then you really get five weeks off or so [until] you've got to report back, and then you're going again, guys are tired. They're still beat up, their bodies."
There's some truth to Purdy's comments, as deep postseason runs every year does tend to wear even great teams down. That's the biggest reason why there hasn't been a three-peat champion in any of the four major team sports since the Shaq-Kobe Lakers of the early aughts. The Chiefs had a shot to break that drought this year but got blown out by the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
That said, this is definitely not the kind of thing that you want your quarterback saying in public.
Whether they were tired or not, the Niners have taken a huge hit this month in free agency, as many of their key role players have left for other teams. While that should take a toll on their projected win total in 2024, the core blue-chip pieces are all still in place, including McCaffrey, Kyle Shanahan, Trent Williams, George Kittle, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner.
The reason the Niners couldn't afford to keep all those role guys was because they're preparing to give Purdy a long-term contract extension. Many analysts have been fooled by Purdy's numbers - but he remains a below-average QB in our estimation - boosted by an obscenely-gifted support structure, especially Shanahan's playcalling.
Nevetheless, it sounds like the 49ers are prepared to give Purdy a huge new deal, somewhere in the range of $40-$50 million per year. The Niners will still be a tough team as long as they stay healthy, but if they're not careful this deal could effectively close their Super Bowl window.
