{"id":37410,"date":"2025-11-04T11:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37410\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:28:09","slug":"49ers-finding-ways-to-win-despite-injury-identity-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37410\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers finding ways to win despite injury, identity woes"},"content":{"rendered":"


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Even before the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> kicked off against the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> in Week 1, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh repeatedly warned anyone who would listen of the upcoming rollercoaster ride that would be this season.<\/p>\n

The Niners were fresh off a roster revamp, saying goodbye to nearly 20 players in the offseason, 15 of whom landed deals elsewhere worth up to a maximum of $341.5 million. In their place, the 49ers leaned into their youth, with an 11-man draft class and a free agent group that had no marquee players.<\/p>\n

After Sunday’s 34-24<\/a> win against the New York Giants<\/a>, the 49ers sit 6-3, right in the thick of the NFC playoff race<\/a> and what figures to be a contested battle for the NFC West.<\/p>\n

Despite an encouraging start, another wave of injuries combined with the ups and downs of leaning so heavily on youth has the Niners still not exactly sure of themselves just past the season’s halfway point.<\/p>\n

“It’s still up in the air,” left tackle Trent Williams<\/a> said. “I don’t think that we are set in stone of who we are. I think there’s a lot of ways to improve. [We’re] still a really young football team and each week of experience is very vital to all the development. Although we had a good win and the record is not too bad. I don’t think we’re at what we could be right now.”<\/p>\n

The Niners aren’t where they want or could be at this point, but they’re also in a good position given all that’s happened.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday’s game against the Giants, the 49ers had more than $190 million in salary cap space not available when factoring in dead money, injured lists and inactive players, according to OverTheCap.<\/p>\n

That’s a list that includes star linebacker Fred Warner<\/a> (fractured and dislocated right ankle) and defensive end Nick Bosa<\/a> (torn right ACL) on injured reserve, receiver Brandon Aiyuk<\/a> (torn right ACL) on the physically unable to perform list, and quarterback Brock Purdy<\/a> (right big toe) as a pregame inactive.<\/p>\n

And in what seems like a weekly occurrence, the Niners lost another starter in rookie defensive end Mykel Williams<\/a>, the No. 11 pick in April’s NFL draft, who suffered a torn right ACL against the Giants.<\/p>\n

As Tuesday’s trade deadline approaches (4 p.m. ET), their record probably necessitates that they continue to attempt to bolster their roster, especially on defense, without mortgaging the future.<\/p>\n

“I’m always hopeful that the front office continues to do what they’ve always done is try to put us in the best position to be a championship football team,” Williams said. “I know [general manager] John [Lynch] and them will work magic. If not, we got what we have in this locker room and I think that’s enough. But obviously the front office is going to continue to do their job.”<\/p>\n

After Week 9, they are 3-0 in NFC West games and 6-1 against NFC foes. Those marks bode well for any potential playoff tiebreakers, and the Niners should benefit from having made it through the most road-weary part of their schedule. In the final eight weeks, San Francisco will travel only three times, and it will play three of the final four games at Levi’s Stadium.<\/p>\n

The next two weeks, in particular, should help the 49ers get a better handle on who they are and where they might be going. The Niners host the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> in a game with huge divisional implications on Sunday before traveling to play the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> in Week 11.<\/p>\n

All told, the Niners play the fourth-easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, which is part of why FPI gives them a 90.2% chance of reaching the postseason.<\/p>\n

“The challenge is don’t be complacent, and we’ve got to do it again next week,” quarterback Mac Jones<\/a> said. “That’s the goal.”<\/p>\n

If things go as they hope, the Niners will offset the mounting defensive injuries with a return to health on offense. Purdy (toe), receivers Ricky Pearsall<\/a> (knee) and Aiyuk (knee) as well as guard Ben Bartch<\/a> could all return in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Those returns should bolster an offense that has moved the ball well (352.1 yards per game, 10th in the NFL) but struggled to consistently score points (21.6 points per game, 23rd). That will be necessary because the defensive injuries mean the rollercoaster ride is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

“I think we have a very good offense with the potential to be a great offense,” tight endGeorge Kittle<\/a>said. “I think as an offense we’re very connected and our offense needs to score a lot of points week in and week out. That’s just what it is. … There’s, I don’t want to say pressure, I just think there’s a ton of opportunity in the offense. Go out there and just score a bunch of points and have a bunch of guys involved with it.”<\/p>\n

It’s an identity the Niners may need to forge soon if this year of doubt is going to become a season of success.br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Even before the San Francisco 49ers kicked off against the Seattle Seahawks in Week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[26054,750,752,26052,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,26053],"class_list":["post-37410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-26054","tag-espn","tag-nfl","tag-purdy-brock","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-williams-trent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}