The Rams will meet their arch-rivals from the NFC West, the San Francisco 49ers, about 10 weeks from now. Looking at the changes that the 49ers have made in the offseason, including the addition of Mike Evans and the return of Nick Bosa from a torn ACL, it’s not clear to me if San Francisco has improved as much as the media seems to think they have.
Did San Francisco’s changes actually improve their team?
Or will the 49ers simply look a little different but have the same outcome as every other season,
over-achieving but falling short?
What has changed?
Saleh Out, Morris In
The loss of Robert Saleh as defensive coordinator is huge. The former Jets and current Titans head coach helped Kyle Shanahan’s defense rebound in 2025, a year after San Francisco’s defense had an uncharacteristic collapse under DC Nick Sorenson, surviving the losses of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner to injury.
Saleh left the 49ers for Tennessee, and Shanahan hired Raheem Morris shortly after he was let go by the Atlanta Falcons.
“I’ve been with Raheem a number of places,” Shanahan said. “That’s why I respect him so much as a coach, as a person. … Raheem has been in a lot of different schemes, knows how to utilize personnel, and I’ve always known he’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around.”
I can’t put Morris on the same tier as Saleh though. Not as a defensive coordinator.
Saleh has had more experience and more success as a defensive coordinator compared to Morris. Did Shanahan hire Morris because of talent or because of familiarity? And if anyone else is familiar with Morris’s defense, it’s McVay.
New Veteran Players
The 49ers have a few new faces on the roster this year that will be counted on to improve:
- WR Mike Evans
- WR Christian Kirk
- DT Osa Odighizuwa
- LB Dre Greenlaw
- CB Nate Hobbs
- P Corliss Waitman
GM John Lynch made a trade with the Cowboys for underrated defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. Casual observers may not be as familiar with the name, but the Niners certainly put a lot of stock into him: San Francisco traded a third-round pick for Odighizuwa, less than a year after he signed a four-year, $80 million contract with Dallas.
The defensive tackle isn’t a sack-artist, but Cowboys fans love his team presence and hustle. In other words, good, not great, but an upgrade nonetheless. Shanahan has already called him one of the best leaders on the team however:
Greenlaw returns after he spent one year with the Denver Broncos and though he is not a Hall of Famer, or even a Pro Bowler, he knows the assignment and should be fully healed from a torn Achilles suffered in 2024. He’s still the best linebacker the Niners have found to put next to Fred Warner:
“After parting ways with linebacker Dee Winters during April’s NFL Draft, San Francisco’s fallback options aren’t exactly at Greenlaw’s level. Tatum Bethune is primarily a run-stopping linebacker, while Garrett Wallow and Luke Gifford are special teams aces. Second-year pro Nick Martin might be on the fringes of the roster after disappointing in 2025, and rookie Jaden Dugger has promise but is an unpolished first-year pro.”
The Broncos, however, released Greenlaw after he struggled to stay on the field, appearing in only eight games during the 2025 season due to injuries. Another one on the health watch list.
If these are not lateral moves, then they are just minor upgrades, at best.
Mike Evans is the big name addition
But so too is new number one receiver Mike Evans, and he’s also about to turn 33. The Niners signed the longtime Bucs star to a three-year, $42.5 million contract, despite Evans missing half of last season with hamstring and collarbone injuries. And he only had 368 yards in the eight games he played in.
Lynch didn’t stop there, also signing vet Christian Kirk to a one-year, $3 million contract. Kirk has just 618 yards over the past two seasons, and the Niners will be his third team in as many years. Between Evans, Kirk, Stribling, and Pearsall, will Purdy end up with even two star receivers this year?
It’s certainly not likely to be as good as Puka Nacua and Davante Adams as a duo.
That’s one of the reasons that L.A.’s acquisitions of cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson is so impactful:
Matching up those two players on any of Shanahan’s two receivers is more likely than not to yield positive results for the Rams. Furthermore, now it’s going to be Myles Garrett against Trent Williams at left tackle, giving Purdy even less time to improvise and dance in the pocket, one of his signature weapons as a quarterback.
Les Snead has done the work to slow down the 49ers with these moves on defense.
Bosa, Kittle working their way back
The Niners may have finished 20th in total defense in 2025, but Bosa was injured in Week 3 and missed all but three games. The 2022 Defensive Player of the Year says he “plans on being ready” for Week 1, almost one year after he tore his ACL. Tight end George Kittle has the same goal, to be able to suit up for the Rams in Australia in Week 1.
How much of a threat the Niners will be in Week 1 will not only depend on the availability of those two stars, but also the viability. How ready for football action will they be in 2.5 months? That could depend on how much they’ve practiced, which nobody knows yet. Bosa and Kittle are two of the best players in the league at their positions, but I would much rather face them in Week 1 than Week 9 or Week 18, given their arduous rehabs.
And those aren’t the only issues facing San Francisco’s starters.
Wide Receiver Woes
Purdy’s receiving weapons, of which he ended up with almost no stars by the end of last season (Jauan Jennings, now departed, led all Niners wideouts with 643 yards and 9 touchdowns), continue to create more questions than answers.
- Brandon Aiyuk is refusing to play for the 49ers and demanding to be cut. Whether Lynch abides is not clear, but that’s one receiver we can assure won’t play for San Francisco again.
- Ricky Pearsall, a first round pick in 2024, has missed 14 games in two years. When he’s healthy, he’s more “average” than he is good, and he’s only put up 928 yards and 3 touchdowns since the draft.
- De’Zhaun Stribling, the 33rd overall pick in this year’s draft, is intriguing. But many also called him the biggest reach of the draft. Will he make Lynch look like a genius or a fool?
That’s one of the reasons that the Evans, Kirk, 33-year-old Kittle and 30-year-old Christian McCaffrey are so important. San Francisco’s other returning weapons have been largely disappointing.
The 49ers used their first pick in the draft on receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, but many called it one of the biggest reaches in the entire class.
Injuries
Above all, the Niners have to stay away from the sheer number of injuries they seem to accrue annually. Unfortunately, given the ages and the histories of many of their stars, that seems like an unlikely scenario. Collectively, Mike Evans (12), Trent Williams (8), Christian Kirk (13), Nick Bosa (17), Christian McCaffrey (13), Ricky Pearsall (14), and George Kittle (8) have missed eighty-five games over the past two years. That’s not even including Fred Warner’s 11 games missed last year.
Yet even with all their injuries in 2025, the 49ers rebounded by the end of the season to fall one win shy of the number one seed. Kudos to Lynch and Shanahan for applying the duct tape and coming up with great schemes on both offense and defense, but can they keep doing it if it keeps happening?
Their history says yes, but frankly, I don’t think so.
Because although the 49ers did address some needs and bring in some new faces, nothing they’ve done has quite gone up the level of being good enough to beat the Rams.
