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SEATTLE — Trent Williams had something to say to his beaten, heartbroken, and emotionally blasted teammates after the last gasp and last minute of the last game of this ever-lasting 49ers season.
And when Williams speaks, the 49ers lean in.
Williams’ words weren’t about this sad day and this dem0ralizing 41-6 loss to the Seahawks on Saturday in a divisional-round playoff game at Lumen Field. They weren’t about sadness or defeat at all.
“I’m super excited for what we have with this group, the future that we have,” Williams said later at the podium when asked about his address to the team. “Obviously, tonight sucks, but it’s not the end for us. …
“A lot of people tried to fight until they couldn’t fight no more.”
It wasn’t the end to this 49ers journey. It’s closer to the beginning. It’s about suffering a litany of devastating injuries, figuring out how to win 12 regular-season games and knocking off the defending-champion Eagles in the wild-card round.
And it’s about inevitably running up against a healthier, tougher, more talented team on Saturday and understanding that they can and maybe should be healthier, tougher, and more talented than everybody next season. And maybe the season after that, too.
Which made everything about the 49ers’ postgame mood very different than all the other painful playoff losses of this era — twice in the Super Bowl and twice in the NFC Championship Game.
Those old moments were unalloyed torment for the 49ers, filled with tears and dead silence. Those really felt like the end of something that might never be regained.
But on Saturday, Williams, Kyle Shanahan, and other team leaders made sure that this wasn’t about the pain of what could’ve been. It was about the agony of what already happened and was overcome.
It wasn’t about what the 49ers had lost on this day, but what they’d gained this season.
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“It was extremely special to me because I’ve never been part of a program, part of a team that was so behind the eight-ball, that just found a way to compete every week,” Williams said.
“It obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to. But the future is really bright.”
They lost Nick Bosa early in the season. Then Fred Warner. Then Mykel Williams. Then Tatum Bethune. They lost Brock Purdy for eight games. They lost George Kittle for a month early on, then again in the middle of last week’s victory in Philadelphia.
That’s just the short list of injuries this season. It was too much for them against the Seahawks, both in the regular-season finale (that decided the NFC’s No. 1 seed) and again during the deluge on Saturday, starting with a Seahawks kickoff return for a touchdown on the game’s first play.
But how in the world did they get within one win of the NFC Championship Game in the first place? The 49ers’ veterans wanted everybody else on the team to know it — and remain committed to keeping this going.
“What I will say is, in all my years of playing, this is one of the proudest I’ve ever been to be a part of a team, this team,” Christian McCaffrey said. “And I love everybody in that locker room.”
Practically, realistically, honestly, the 49ers weren’t nearly as good as the Seahawks this season. But the Seahawks might be the best team in the NFL and might prove it in the next several weeks, concluding at Levi’s Stadium for Super Bowl 60.
Also, the 49ers beat the Seahawks in Seattle in Week 1 — the only time the 49ers were close to full strength against their rivals this season. Yes, that was mentioned a time or two Saturday night.
And the 49ers go into next season knowing that Purdy is easily one of the top quarterbacks in the league, that their injured stars should all be back at some point before next season’s playoffs, that the handful of young players who stepped into major roles this season should only be better, and that there is something special in this group of people.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy went 8-3 as a starter this season, including playoff games. | Source: John Froschauer/Associated Press
“The character and the heart of this team was unlike anything I’ve been a part of,” Purdy said. “I know a lot of guys were saying that. Kyle said it. Trent Williams. Everyone feels it.
“For us, it does excite us in terms of, we’re going to regroup and get guys healthy and get back after it. We are excited for the future. But right now it sucks.”
They also have money to spend after last offseason’s financial reset and the offloading of Brandon Aiyuk’s contract. The 49ers have just a few very specific needs that should be addressed directly — a dynamic defensive end opposite Bosa and probably multiple playmaking wide receivers.
The 49ers had those holes in their roster all season and, until Saturday, survived it. Then the Seahawks erased the 49ers’ wobbly receiver corps, shut down McCaffrey and the run game, and powered through the 49ers’ defense whenever they had to.
But those are fixable points for the 49ers. It’s all possible.
Can they win the Super Bowl in February 2027?
“One hundred percent, yeah,” Purdy said.
Why do you feel that, Brock?
“I really do believe that we have the right guys, man,” Purdy said. “Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to. But I really do think that with some guys getting healthy and what we stand for and how we always bounce back — I feel like our backs were against the wall all season with guys going down, but we always found a way.”
Shanahan, for his part, didn’t get as specific as that. But in the aftermath of past playoff losses, he’s looked close to shattered. And he didn’t look or sound shattered on Saturday night.
He sounded disappointed, but proud. He looked a little mad, but also incredibly eager to start planning for next season and the next chance to play games with these players again.
Everybody in that locker room sounded like that, actually. They weren’t good enough to play a few more weeks together this season. But they will come back together next season and they will carry everything important about this season with them. It’s not going away. It can’t be over.
On Saturday night, the 49ers made sure to let everyone know: This is not over.