The San Francisco 49ers through five weeks find themselves in unfavorable, familiar territory.
Slow starts were a hallmark of Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers for a few seasons following an 8-0 start in the 2019 campaign. In 2020 they were 4-4 through eight games. The next year they fell to 3-5 before putting together a late-season run and finishing 10-7. It was more of the same in 2022 when they started 3-4 before ripping off 10 in a row to finish the year.
In 2023 things changed, but they still dropped three in a row after a 5-0 start before finishing 12-5.
This season is another slow start with the 49ers sitting at 2-3 through five weeks. Logic says this group, many of which have been part of the teams that struggled to start 2021 and 2022, would be calloused to the adversity this year’s team is facing. Head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t believe previous experience will play a role in whether the 49ers can climb out of the rut they dug for themselves in 2024.
“No, I don’t think it pertains to anything,” Shanahan said on a conference call. “I think everybody goes off their life experiences and we have some people who have been here can always resort to that and just know how things work. I’ve been through a number of them in my whole coaching career, not just here.
“So, you always know going through this that you can never count yourself out until you’re actually eliminated from something. I’ve seen teams start 0-4 and get there before. So, there’s lots of things that go into it. But I think every year’s different and we’ve got to write our own story this year and it has nothing to do with other years.”
For this year’s 49ers there are a handful of significant changes from past years that will require perhaps a different formula for San Francisco.
Their defense hasn’t been as good as in year’s past, but they have better quarterback play which gives some optimism that there’s a better version of the 49ers on the horizon.
The real issue, which supports what Shanahan said, is that the 49ers will need to rely on a slew of young players to help buoy the club after a rocky start to this year. Those players haven’t been in this spot before. The experience of some of the team’s leaders will help the 49ers, but they won’t automatically make the playoffs just because they’ve been here before.
San Francisco needs to be better, and if they don’t get better, no amount of experience is going to save them from the mediocrity they’re careening toward at the end of Week 5.
