My role at Niners Nation is to put together the daily links. Every single day, I read every piece of media that mentions the 49ers. This past spring, once the dust settled from free agency and the draft, I started noticing the media narratives coalescing about the upcoming season. If you’ve also been paying attention the last few months, then you’ve been reading the same story told many different ways. For those of you just tuning in, the narrative goes like this: the 2025 49ers are an extremely
age-unbalanced team with a fourth-place schedule. The Greatest Generation offense should be good (yet geriatric) while the defense has more Gen Z than the Marina on a Saturday night. Every layer of the offense has at least one S-tier player with an injury history, with all of our hope pinned on Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Trent Williams, and eventually Brandon Aiyuk staying on the field. Every layer of the defense has at least one proven veteran star (Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and Deommodore Lenoir) surrounded by unproven youngsters. The push-pull between those inexperienced players helping or hindering their respective “unc” will determine how far this team goes. On offense, you’re betting on health to set the floor. On defense, you’re betting on development to set the ceiling. You don’t know how either will go, but you do know that the 49ers are not facing any quarterback on the Josh Allen/Lamar Jackson/Patrick Mahomes tier nor any defense on the Philly/Denver/Baltimore tier. Instead of facing the NFC contenders, they’ll be facing the NFC West. None of their opponents are in win-now mode – there’s no Green Bay that swung for Micah Parsons nor a Washington that swung for Laremy Tunsil. It’ll be Any Given Sunday, every Sunday, until we have better clarity on the offense’s health and the defense’s growth.
This uncertainty is a choice. The 49ers had the cap space to spend more on veterans, but they opted to save money and double down on inexperienced guys on cheap contracts. No matter their raw potential and college production, rookies are cheap for a reason. They’ll make mistakes. You’re hoping that it’s not too many mistakes, and that they happen early in the season, and that these rookies are the outliers that can handle the speed, physicality, and complexity of grown-man football.
That seems to be the rationale that led to the first, second, and fifth pick of the 49ers’ draft: go get the men amongst boys and hope they figure it out. If just two out of three of Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, and CJ West develop on or ahead of schedule, then this team will have a clear edge against the weak o-lines of Seattle, Arizona, Houston, New York, and Tennessee. The defensive line is both the least certain and the most important position on the entire team this year. For this team to go far, the rookie d-linemen will be a big part of that.
But if you only pay attention to the three big dudes up front, you’ll miss the key to the defense’s overall ceiling: the little guy off to the side.
Nickel corners have a ripple effect on the entire defense. Just look at the last two rosters that made the Super Bowl: 2019 had K’Wuan Williams, and 2023 had Deommodore Lenoir playing their asses off. Nickels are obviously critical for covering the slot receiver, but less obvious is their impact on the defensive line. Take it from Robert Saleh, speaking to The Athletic in 2019:
“The whole group of D-linemen, in order for them to be maximized, we have to get offenses to account for the safeties, the nickels, the backers,” Saleh said of K’Waun Williams’ blitzing duties Thursday. “When they do, it just frees up. Now you’re just creating 1-on-1s for those guys and when you can do that, that group is pretty talented. It’s just a cat-and-mouse game of making sure that teams play us honest.”
Upton Stout’s personal trajectory will determine the team’s trajectory, if it could come close to matching 2019 or 2023. He could be the reason that CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr, and Cam Ward all play like the worst versions of themselves… or the reason that Russ Wilson, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, and Sam Darnold find their groove a little too easily.
It’s a tall order for a man who would otherwise have to lie about his height on the dating apps. Stout’s performance in training camp drew rave reviews, and now we’ll finally get to see what Robert Saleh and Kyle Shanahan saw this past summer. For such a young guy, he’ll have massive responsibilities every week. And every week, no matter how well he plays that day, I’ll be trying to gauge how much better he’s playing relative to his last game. His development could determine if we can make any kind of noise in the playoffs against the Real Teams. I’ll be in the barrel watching Stout age.
I will admit that I am biased. I’m inclined to root for Upton Stout because I’m massively obsessed with stout beers. I don’t mean Guinness – I mean the heavy bourbon-barrel-aged 15%ers that overwhelm the senses and raise your blood sugar. You can only drink a couple ounces at a time, which makes it perfect for football. Football is a series of moments that demand extreme attention, interspersed with 20 seconds of nonsense. In between snaps, you can actually take the beer in and let it linger and breathe and process what you just tasted.
You’ll need every second, because the best stouts are ferocious. They’re like short guys in the NFL. A shorter guy in the NFL has to be maxed out at every possible trait: speed, strength, coordination, intelligence, that dawg in him. A proper stout needs to burst with flavor, texture, and barrel in every sip, simply because you’re sipping less of it. If it’s not coating your tongue, it’s not fighting for every yard and playing through the whistle. If it’s too sweet and syrupy, then it needs the bourbon or cognac barrel-aged edge to cut through the decadence.
Stouts aren’t for everyone. Most people go for something lighter, more conventional, more predictable… the safe route. They’re missing out on the overlooked gems of the beer world. They’re missing out on the Upton Stouts.
For this season preview, I’ll go game-by-game and look at the relevant match-ups while offering my recommendation on the best stout-focused brewery from each opponent’s area. I’m assuming perfect health (it’s simply impossible to predict injuries on either side). Several of the breweries linked I’ve had many times, and for some of the other recs I had to look through Reddit, Untappd, my favorite breweries’ Instagram followings, and ask people. If I hadn’t had it yet, then I absolutely would get it if I found myself in the opposing team’s town. Without further ado, here’s the 49ers 2025 Season explained through Stout:
Week 1 – @ Seattle. Win. Great Notion.
Great Notion is much like Sam Darnold in that it’s a Seattle-based brewery with ties to the Bay. We saw Sam with our own eyes when he backed up Brock Purdy – in fact, you could have watched one of his games from Great Notion’s Berkeley location.
Seattle will be a great gut-check after the Good Vibes Summer. A win will be a big proof-of-concept that Robert Saleh’s youth movement has what it takes to take advantage against a vulnerable QB playing behind a mediocre offensive line.
The game will be simple: get pressure on Sam Darnold early, and he’ll start throwing picks. Give him too much time, however, and he’ll start cooking. Cooper Kupp, washed as he is, will try every old-head trick in the book on Upton Stout. On the other side of the ball, Ricky Pearsall will have his hands full going against Tariq Woolen. This Mike McDonald-led defense looks good enough to limit an Aiyuk-less offense, so off jump, the defense needs to step up.
Beating the Seahawks on the road to start the season will demand competency and disruption. It’ll take minimal-mistake-made football to keep Darnold in check when he’s cooking. At the same time, the big plays will be there for the taking because Darnold can get rattled more than most. If they lose, they’ll get a chance to bounce back against the Saints the following week, which will have a significantly worse defense and similarly mediocre offensive line.
Week 2 – @ New Orleans. Win. Abita and Parish.
At first glance, this seems like one of the easiest games on the schedule. Rookie QB, rebuilding roster, first-year head coach. I’m comfortable predicting a dominant win, but I’m not sleeping on NO’s offensive line. Their two tackles, Taliese Fuaga and Kelvin Banks Jr, are quite talented. Their interior looks a little more vulnerable, as Trevor Penning and Cesar Ruiz are two run-mauling first-rounders that have yet to meet expectations as pass-blockers.
It’ll be a non-trivial test for the 49ers DTs, especially against the run. Mykel Williams and Alfred Collins will be counted on in this game, and if they do their jobs, Fred Warner and Dee Winters can take care of business to silence Alvin and the chipmunks. Beyond the win, this’ll be an important learning experience for all the young guys before things get even realer at home the following week.
Week 3 – Arizona. Win. Wren House.
Mobile quarterbacks are the bane of this team’s existence, and this is the first true dual-threat QB they’ll be facing. Kyler Murray’s in a make-or-break year, so he’ll be playing with something to prove. Arizona has a three-headed offensive monster in Marvin Harrison Jr, Trey McBride, and James Conner while their steady offensive line has stayed stable. On defense, they’ve reunited edge rusher Josh Sweat with head coach Jonathan Gannon while drafting a bunch of young talent. Walter Nolan and Will Johnson may or may not have been my draft crushes this past cycle.
But they have a glaring weakness that the 49ers offense is well-equipped to exploit: their linebackers. They won’t be able to cover Kittle on middle-of-the-field throws and they won’t be able to stop the 49ers rushing. Unlike the Seattle game, this is a game where I expect the offense to step up and take control of the game, no matter what happens on the other side of the ball.
The Cardinals are good enough to maybe win the AFC South, but they play in the NFC West. Speaking of the AFC South…
Week 4 – Jacksonville. Win. Aardwolf and Ink Factory.
On paper, the Jaguars seem intimidating. With new management, they’re nothing to Baalke at…. Liem Cohen is in charge now. Brian Thomas Jr, Travis Hunter, and Trevor Lawrence are some of the most physically talented dudes in the NFL. Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen screaming off the edge will be a steeper hill for Colton McKivitz to climb than any of the pass-rushing duos from the previous three games.
That’s all fine and dandy, but their offensive line is still horrendous. Nick Bosa and his boy band will play the hits on Trevor Lawrence, who sucks under pressure. Meanwhile, the Jags’ interior d-line and secondary isn’t scaring anyone, certainly not a good Christian offense like the 49ers. Demarcus Robinson will be back for this game, which will open up the 49ers’ offense even more. The 49ers should win this one, despite some late scares from the Jags receivers getting loose.
Week 5 – @ LA Rams. Loss. Bottle Logic.
Anaheim is home to the happiest place on Earth: Bottle Logic Brewing. One of the best breweries in the nation, Bottle Logic, decides what stouts to brew by using the randomizer manatees from South Park. Bananas Foster? Mole? Cigar and leather? They’ll say some crazy flavor, you’ll roll your eyes, and then you’ll take a sip and do a double-take because they called their own shot.
The Rams have been calling their own shot all offseason. Not only are Matt Stafford and his blindside protector, Alaric Jackson, both healthy again…. the Rams also signed Davonte Adams, Poona Ford, and Nate Landman. The latter two are less talked about than Adams, but DT Ford and LB Landman alleviate two of the Rams’ biggest weaknesses: run defense and their linebacker unit.
This is the first contender-level team the 49ers are playing this season, and unless Stafford’s back starts acting up, I would be glad to split the season series with LA. Thankfully, their schedule is a lot easier than the Rams. They can still finish with a better record and win the division, but I would not want to face the Rams in the playoffs.
Without a fully healthy Aiyuk and with the youngsters still finding their footing, I see this as the first loss of the season. The short week doesn’t help, but the following mini-bye will be welcomed. The elder millennials on offense will need the rest, because they have a couple of good-offense/bad-defense games coming up.
Week 6 – @ Tampa Bay. Win. Angry Chair.
While the 49ers lick their chops from the first loss of the season, Tampa Bay’s offense will be coming in hot. They have a helluva o-line, great receivers, a young buck running the ball, and a vengeful Baker Mayfield. All that won’t be enough to make up for their holes on defense.
Tampa Bay fans will argue that their team was injured last year – they didn’t have their top three WRs when we beat them last year – but even with Haason Reddick coming on board, they still don’t have the juice to really threaten the 49ers offense. There’s been some hype around LB SirVocea Dennis coming back and a ton of young additions to their secondary, but by this point, I think the 49ers will be ROLLING on offense. Not to mention that Brandon Aiyuk is projected to return right around here. Much like the Arizona game, I think the offense will handle business.
Week 7 – Atlanta. Win. Monday Night and Variant.
The Falcons lost their best offensive lineman, tackle Kaleb McGary, to season-ending IR already. Their defensive line, especially the interior, was terrible last year, with little done to improve it. Our run game should Puni-sh them while our pass rush should make it hard on Michael Penix Jr. Their skill players are no joke, but not even Bijan Robinson and Drake London will be enough to keep pace with an in-rhythm 49ers offense.
Week 8 – @Houston. Loss. Brash and Ingenious.
Eight weeks in, this two-game road trip will be a barometer for the defensive rookies’ progress.
When I say that the “defensive line rookies need to be developing on or ahead of schedule”, this is the game where the Williams/Collins/West trio needs to be way ahead of schedule in order to give us a chance. CJ Stroud, newly empowered to change plays at the line of scrimmage, is the best dual-threat QB the team will face all year. His offensive line ranked dead-last in 2024, but with some new players and coaches, I’m not counting on them staying so bad.
If the rookies are outperforming expectations, 49ers win. Mykel Williams, CJ West, and Alfred Collins need to have improved significantly as pass-rushers by this point, while Upton Stout better be ready for the slot magician Christian Kirk for the 49ers to win this game.
If the rookies are merely meeting expectations, 49ers lose. As much as I believe in the 49ers offense, this Texans defense is loaded. DeMeco Ryans will be ready for Shanahan’s tricks. 6-2 ain’t a bad place to be, but the national media will call us frauds and deride us as stat padders. It’ll be lit.
Week 9 – @ New York Giants. Win. Finback.
Brooklyn is home to one of the finest barrel-aging programs in the entire country. Finback Brewing specializes in a type of stouts that has very little added ingredients. Its flavor from the sheer amount of time it spends (upwards of 3-5 years) in well-aged high-quality bourbon barrels. It’s simple in theory but very hard in practice. When executed well, there’s nothing like it.
The 49ers will need to draw inspiration from Finback when they gameplan against the New York Giants. The Giants boast an overwhelmingly talented defensive line, but the rest of their defense is bad at everything else. All the 49ers need to do is establish the ground game and connect on quick, surgical, short-field passes. Simple, not easy, but exactly what a veteran offense that prides itself on team-blocking should excel at.
The rookies on defense, on the other hand, will be under a microscope this game. After half a season in the NFL, are these young guys cutting down on their mistakes? The Giants will have their star left tackle, Andrew Thomas, back for this game to protect either Russell Wilson or Jaxson Dart. Wilson, speaking of, has never played with a receiver as good as Malik Nabers. Their work will be cut out for them.
The occasional missed tackle or coverage bust in week 2 against the Saints won’t fly at this point in the season. There are three divisional games and three talented young quarterbacks left on the schedule. The opening game against Seattle demanded the 49ers to play both competently AND opportunistically. The Giants will be a gut check on whether they can just play competently against the talented offenses. We know the rookies are talented, but can they nail the fundamentals at a critical point in the season?
Week 10 – Los Angeles Rams. Win. Side Project.
It feels like several lifetimes ago, but the Rams used to play in St. Louis. Drive fifteen minutes from their old stadium and you’ll happen upon one of the most exclusive and hard-to-get stout breweries on the planet. Side Project Brewing doesn’t distribute much outside its taprooms, so stout freaks like me will fly from all over the world to St Louis just for this one brewery. Non-stout people (my concerned friends and family) are a little shocked at all the time, money, and effort it takes to just drink beer… but one sip and they completely get it.
By this point in the season, the 49ers’ expensive and exhausting Brandon Aiyuk should be fully back online and proving his value. I wasn’t comfortable predicting a win against the Rams without the best version of Aiyuk playing. But in this first home game back from the road trip, I see a 49ers offense in midseason form getting their lick back.
Week 11 – @ Arizona. Win. OHSO Brewing.
Much like Kyler Murray sipping a stout, I’ll keep this short and sweet. Their Arizona linebackers are still a massive hole for their defense, and the 49ers offense will be even more confident attacking the middle of the field. 9-2 with a healthy dose of standings-watching.
Week 12 – Carolina. Win. Burial Brewing.
For this one, I won’t be harping on the defensive rookies as much. The Panthers have an underrated o-line, an ascending Bryce Young, and got better at every skill position. Their defense is a different story. They were historically bad last year and haven’t made dramatic enough upgrades. Outside of Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn, they have an unproven mix of rookies and new free-agent signings. Even if Tet McMillan goes off, this is the type of game where a healthy 49ers offense should be making its money.
Week 13 – Cleveland Browns. Win. Jackie O’s and Private Press.
A few hours from Cleveland is Jackie O’s Brewery. Jackie O’s is the Jed York of stout breweries: an Ohio-based institution that ended up having quite the impact on the Bay Area.
Jackie O’s is a well-respected brewery on its own with a sizable distribution. Their former long-time head brewer, Brad Clark, moved to the Bay Area after falling in love with a lady from the Bay Area, where he started his own brewery called Private Press. I was fortunate enough to attend a private tasting at Toronado (one of San Francisco’s historic beer bars), where for 100 bucks, they gave you eight 5-oz pours of his beers while he got up on stage and told us the backstory and brewing process behind each beer.
He broke down each beer like Kyle Shanahan going over film, with such a level of detail, nuance, and creativity toward something you didn’t think could even be that creative. He was obsessed with craft beer since before he could legally drink, so he started brewing with a fake ID. He worked his way up at Jackie O’s to lead the brewing team, and during his time there, Jackie O’s expanded significantly. He stopped spending as much time brewing beer and started spending a lot more time managing staff and processes. His budding romance started getting serious so he had to make a choice: leave Ohio and start from scratch.
Building this new brewing project from the ground up, he wanted total Shanahan-esque control over every detail in the brewing process. This meant that he’d have to put a hard cap on the volume of beer he could brew, so he created a subscription program. Private Press became the stuff of legend, quickly racking up a years-long waiting list. Thankfully, he recently opened a taproom in Santa Cruz, so you can try Private Press on draft or as an in-house bottle. If you go, raise a glass to Ohio, which has given us both Brad Clark and Jed York.
I’ve been talking more about a Bay Area brewery than the Ohio brewery, because this game should reveal more about the Niners than anything else. It’s a look inward and take-care-of-business game. You can’t fall asleep on Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward, but the Browns aren’t good enough to keep up with the 49ers. Their linebackers are especially bad with Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah lost for the season, their offense is a mess, and they don’t even know which quarterback will be playing.
The 49ers will go into the bye at 11-2, which, dare I say, might work against them.
Week 15 – Tennessee Titans. Loss. Southern Grist.
Trap game!
Coming off a bye, I think the 49ers will fall asleep on the Titans. They don’t seem very good on paper, but Cam Ward only needs average play out of his revamped offensive line (LT Dan Moore Jr and G Kevin Zeitler) to do some damage. On defense, their interior defensive line of Jeffrey Simmons, T’Vondre Sweat, and Sebastian Jones-Day can make life hell for our offense. L’Jarius Sneed helms a talented secondary, with linebacker and edge rusher being the main question mark.
Should the 49ers lose this game? Absolutely not. Will they lose this game? I think so. The bye week, the 11-2 record from beating up on bad teams, and Cam Ward being talented enough doesn’t give me hope. This will not be a game to watch while on a date, lest they see you screaming at these men that don’t know you exist.
Week 16 – Colts. Win. Deviate Brewing.
If the Titans game was a wake-up call, then the Colts game will be the cup of coffee. That’s the energizing effect of getting to play against Daniel Jones, whose offensive line is looking vulnerable on the right side. Center Tanor Bartoloni is inexperienced, RG Matt Goncalves is bad at pass protection, and RT Braden Smith is talented but unreliable. While Nick Bosa and the other veterans will have their hands full, this is where Mykel Williams, CJ West, and Alfred Collins could leave their marks on the game.
The Colts’ defense has a new coordinator (hence why we have Gus Bradley), but I don’t see them rising to some elite level. The 49ers should get to 12-3 on Monday Night Football, with the next two games being the difference between winning the division or trying to jam into a crowded wild card race.
Week 17 – Chicago. Loss. Goose Island and Revolution.
Forget Ben Johnson, their abundance of weapons, and Caleb Williams. Their interior offensive line was majorly upgraded with Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, and Drew Dalman (my free agency crush for the 49ers). This offense will give teams headaches.
Dennis Allen will be in charge of a decent defense that added Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo while returning Andrew Billings and Gervon Dexter. They have a strong d-line, a solid back seven, and an aggressive blitzing coordinator. They’ll come into this game with battle scars from playing in the NFC North (and the Eagles, Ravens, and Commanders).
I would love to be proven wrong. But I think we leave Sunday Night Football with a 12-4 record and our backs against the wall.
Week 18 – Seahawks. Win. Fremont Brewing.
The Bears’ offensive line, this Seattle team is not. Matt Stafford, Sam Darnold is not. Malik Nabers/Nico Collins, JSN is not.
I’ll never sleep on Seattle, but I’m making this pick with both eyes wide open. Does 13-4 win us the division or at least get us in the wild card? I can’t tell you that right now, but I can tell you that Seattle is still several OL pieces away from being as threatening as the Rams, which might very well be the 49ers’ next opponent, given that the Rams are facing the Eagles, Ravens, and Lions and could finish as the wild card.
One of the biggest risks in making stouts is that you pour your freshly made beer base into an old barrel, and then you have to wait a very long time until you know what you even have. You can de-risk it by getting as good of a barrel as possible, and you can taste your stout base’s potential before pouring it in, but you could try it a while later and find that you’ve been making a spoilt stout.
It can go the other way — sometimes the latent characteristics of the barrel can produce some unexpected tasting notes. An oak-y old bourbon can bring out some vanilla in the stout base, and the grizzled veterans on the team might bring the best out of these talented young men.
The 49ers are dumping a promising Stout base of young players into an incredible, well-aged barrel of veteran superstars and hoping for the best. Maybe we’ll have some DROY candidates on our hands, ready to take on the cream of the crop in January and February as they crack open a new Super Bowl window. Maybe not. It’ll take many weeks, months, possibly years to see what the 49ers are brewing.
We’ll get our first taste this Sunday, and after such a long offseason, at least that’s something we can all cheers to.
