Opinion: What The 49ers Need To Do In The Offseason

By Desmond H '27

With the end of the football season, it’s time for Bay Area sports fans to take a look at the 49ers and ask ourselves: Is this team ever going to win a Super Bowl?

This season was a frustrating one for the 49ers. They were wracked by injuries, had an almost entirely new coaching staff, and still managed to make the playoffs, only to be crushed in the second round. All of that has led us to this offseason, and today I am going to describe what the 49ers need to do to bring themselves back from the brink.

First, the 49ers need to get rid of Brandon Aiyuk. Although he holds some sentimental value to those of us who saw his breakout year, he is now nothing but a massive dead cap hit, and to make matters even worse, he now hates the team. After releasing Aiyuk, the 49ers would have a large amount of cap space, and I think what they need to do with that, along with several of their draft picks, is beef up the trenches.

The trenches have quickly proven to be the single most important attribute in winning a Super Bowl, as became painfully obvious to both the Niners and Patriots when their offensive lines were torn apart by the Seahawks, the eventual Super Bowl winners. This bolstering of the defense could take a couple of forms, but the two most impactful moves would be acquiring Trey Hendrickson in the offseason or spending a high draft pick on an offensive lineman. The one downside of a Hendrickson trade, aside from the price tag, would be that the 49ers are trying to develop a young and talented edge in Mykel Williams, but one of the reasons the 49ers drafted him was his ability to shift to the inside, and this would not only prevent confusion but make the defensive line stronger than ever.

On the offensive side of the ball, aside from All-Pro Trent Williams, the 49ers have been painfully weak along the offensive line for the whole Shanahan era. It’s my opinion that the Niners need to rectify this by investing their very first pick in an offensive lineman, which is expensive but gives them the highest chance to lock down a crucial position for years to come.

Overall, the 49ers have the flexibility to make moves this offseason that would have been out of reach for most of the last decade, and nothing can make or break this team like how they spend the next couple of months.