The San Francisco 49ers have fallen well out of the ‘Super Bowl contender’ range in the USA TODAY NFL power rankings.
Entering Week 7 they sat just outside the top 10 at No. 12 overall with a chance to launch themselves toward the top five with a win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead of beating the Chiefs, the 49ers played their worst game of the year and tumbled all the way out of the top half of the power rankings to No. 17.
It’s hard to blame author Nate Davis for sending the 49ers down five spots given how badly they played against the Chiefs and their injury situation coming out of the game.
Brandon Aiyuk is out for the season. Deebo Samuel is dealing with pneumonia that hospitalized him. George Kittle has a sprained foot. Chris Conley has a sprained ankle. Jauan Jennings has a hip injury. Christian McCaffrey still isn’t back from his Achilles tendinitis.
There’s disaster potential for the 49ers when they host the Dallas Cowboys in Week 8. If they fall to 3-5 going into the Bye week, it may not matter that McCaffrey is due back shortly after the week off.
San Francisco is a 3-4 team that hasn’t done anything particularly impressive this season, and their arrow is pointing the wrong direction.
There’s still time for the 49ers to change the trend of their first seven weeks, but it isn’t an encouraging start for a team that isn’t in line for a postseason spot.
