After three straight trips to the NFL playoffs, the San Francisco 49ers (6-10) will be on the outside looking in during this postseason.
The 49ers played in Super Bowl LVIII to cap the 2023 season and each of the two postseason trips before that featured San Francisco advancing to the NFC championship game. The 49ers also reached Super Bowl LIV in the 2019 campaign.
Under president of football operations and general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan’s direction, San Francisco has become accustomed to these deep postseason pushes.
With the 49ers set to enter the offseason earlier than expected, San Francisco hopes to turn that disappointment into some fashion of a positive.
“Yeah, I am,” Shanahan said when asked if he is excited about what the offseason will hold for San Francisco. “I’d be much more excited to not have one and to go all the way to February again, but that is tough.”
As Shanahan touched on Friday, missing the playoffs does allow the 49ers to jumpstart their offseason retooling sooner.
“When you go that that long, everyone needs to get away and by the time you come back there’s usually right when free agency’s starting and you’re not totally quite there yet. So, it’s going to be our first time since I think COVID being off in January.
“And it gives you more time to figure things out. It gives you time to go through the things like the cutups and stuff. You can finish most of that stuff all before the Super Bowl. And then you’re ready to go to other stuff like the draft and free agency and all that as soon as the Super Bowl ends,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan hopes an earlier start to the offseason can help the 49ers chart a path that keeps them out of this position in 2025.
“So just being a lot more ahead of that is real exciting and I’m ready to get to it. We’ve known we’re out of the playoffs here for a little bit and everything’s about finishing this year up the right way and not cutting anything short, finishing your job.
“But I also have been able to look to when I can start improving next year and making sure we’re not in this position again. And I know that starts Monday,” Shanahan said.
Lynch joined KNBR’s “Murph and Markus” show on Friday morning where he said that the 49ers’ plans for remedies to what ailed them in 2024 are “well in the works.”
Shanahan said he will fully dive in on the 49ers’ offseason process beginning on Monday.
“Not as much as John would and stuff,” Shanahan said when asked if he’s already begun his offseason process. “I’ve got an idea of stuff. I map out my January and have to answer my wife’s questions and kids and stuff who might think I’m off, but I’m not. So things like that. But as far as fully putting my mind into it and everything that won’t start until really the plane ride back.”
Shanahan also said that he doesn’t anticipate any changes in terms of his input on offseason personnel decisions.
“No, it’s always been the same. It’s always been the same and I still want it to be the same,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers close their 2024 season with a Sunday date at State Farm Stadium against the Arizona Cardinals (7-9). Kickoff is set for 1:25 p.m. PT with the game set to air on Fox.
