The San Francisco 49ers entered 2024 with one of the top rosters in football and one of only a consensus handful of teams with a shot at winning Super Bowl LIX.
That was until—among other bumps in the road—star running back Christian McCaffrey missed the beginning of the season and now will miss the end, receiver Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL, and quarterback Brock Purdy was in and out of the lineup with a shoulder injury.
Now heading into Week 14, San Francisco sits at 5-7, in last place in the NFC West, and according to ESPN, holding just an 8% chance of making the postseason.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about this reality on Friday.
"We knew coming into this year we were going to have to work to," the 44-year-old said of his team. "I didn't feel 'there' right after training camp, I thought we had a chance though to get better as the year went—especially at the beginning of our schedule which I thought was a lot easier than the second half. I thought we would improve and kind of build that as we went and I was hoping we could be 8-2 when we got to the tough stretch. And I've talked about those three games, which I feel we should have won that we let get away from us, and that got us to 5-5."
Pretty comprehensive stuff from Shanahan today when I asked about the team's mood now with all the outside conversation about the season and bad math odds to make the playoffs: pic.twitter.com/XSQVUu1jgg
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) December 7, 2024
"And then right when we got [to] the toughest part where I was hoping we would have had some continuity and develop into the team that I thought could really make a run and push some things," he continued. "That's when we took a— subtracted a lot of guys from us. And we're kind of at our toughest spot and that's where we are now, which when you don't take advantage of what you had earlier in the year and you are in a tough spot, that's why it makes it extremely hard to get out of."
The 49ers have dealt with injuries to not only Purdy, Aiyuk, and McCaffrey this season, but also wide receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle, defensive end Nick Bosa, and left tackle Trent Williams among others.
With an uphill climb to the playoffs, San Francisco will welcome the 4–8 Chicago Bears to Levi's Stadium this coming Sunday for a 4:25 p.m. EST kickoff.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kyle Shanahan Openly Addresses 49ers' Struggles As Playoff Hopes Dwindle.
