If you’ve been reading along for the last few weeks, you’ll know I’ve been hesitant to declare a time of death on the 2024 49ers. Call it false optimism, call it a wounded desire to hang on to the once annual championship hopes of an aging nucleus that might never get it done. Whatever the classification, it would be foolish to deny any further the lack of pulse on the 2024 49ers. It really died in Green Bay last week. A splattering in frozen Buffalo cooled the body and attached an identifying tag to its toe. It’s over, Niners fans. The most we can now hope for is that designation only represents this hellish campaign and not the entirety of a fruitful but torturous era of Niners football.
Last week, Murph & Markus essentially declared the 2024 season dead before many were ready to. A soul crushing loss to the Seahawks preceded a throttling in Green Bay. Many joined the bandwagon then. This morning it was Larry Krueger joining Papa and Silver to express discontent with the team’s performance in Buffalo. He did make sure to pour water on the flames of the absurd argument that Kyle Shanahan should be relieved of his head coaching duties following the season.
If you’re interested in sadistic activity, let’s quickly go over the plethora of misfortune the 2024 49ers have suffered ON the field. That’s not to mention the off field tragedies and near tragedy that the organization has had to deal with this year.
All summer long Brandon Aiyuk led a cryptic holdout that turned from interesting to stale, back to interesting, finally to more stale than ever before ultimately ending with an expensive deal that was inked prior to week one. Trent Williams held a similar holdout, although it was much shorter and less public. Both were finally signed, but the cobwebs were thick when the team got underway in the regular season.
On the morning of the season opening game, Christian McCaffrey was ruled out. It didn’t seem initially like he’d miss much time, but the ensuing weeks featured a lengthy IR stint, an overseas trip for an operation in Germany, and anything but clarity regarding the status of both his Achilles.
Then the levy really started to break. Javon Hargrave tore his bicep. Jake Moody sprained his ankle making a tackle after another horrible special teams rep. His backup kicker broke a rib doing the same. All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga healed from a torn ACL, then promptly broke his wrist. Aiyuk, after securing generational wealth in the preseason, showed it was prudent to hold out until he signed when a low hit ended his season in October. Deebo Samuel got pneumonia, Nick Bosa injured both obliques, Fred Warner has been playing for nine games with a broken bone in his ankle, and Brock Purdy missed a key game with a shoulder injury.
Finally, Christian McCaffrey injured his knee in Buffalo and will miss the rest of 2024. Jordan Mason suffered a sprained ankle and will go on IR. It’s a laughably long list of injuries. An Absurd accumulation of bad luck. And that doesn’t even cover the intangible cloud that hangs over Levi’s Stadium. February 11th has never seemed further in the rearview.
