You want to know the worst part about the San Francisco 49er’s 10-game losing streak? There will be serious ramifications that bleed into next season.
The trickle down effect of wasting an entire season is going to have a cancerous residue lingering around the franchise. Jed York will not be able to wipe the slate clean. The 49ers are who they are.
- Free agents are going to leverage the 49ers for more money
You thought players didn’t want to make Santa Clara their home last offseason? Just wait. Even though splashing in free agency is a flawed way to build a roster, whoever is the next GM will not have a choice. The 49ers are going to have upwards of $60 million in cap room and they’ll be leveraged by agents into paying above-average players elite money. Veterans normally want to go somewhere to win, and that’s an impossible sell for the 49ers. But the team has needs all across the board (QB, WR, TE, DL, LB, CB) that can no longer be solely addressed through the NFL Draft. Prepare yourself to see some ludicrous if this franchise is actually serious about putting together a competitive roster.
2. Chip Kelly will likely be back in 2017, but he’s already on the hot seat
How many coaches in the NFL can survive back-to-back 3-13 seasons? That’s likely what’s on deck for Kelly in 2017 and that’ll be on top of a disastrous 2015 in Philadelphia. To be clear, there are very few coaches who could’ve turned water into wine this season in San Francisco. But even if the roster is in shambles, Kelly’s offensive wizardry appears grossly overestimated. If the 49ers somehow do land their franchise quarterback, this will not be a quick rebuild and losses will mount next season. If things haven’t turned around, entering a third season with Kelly is going to be a really tough sell.
3. Somewhere around 15-20 players need to be purged from the roster
If the 49ers want to reestablish a winning culture, they’ll have to blow pockets of this roster into smithereens. That might include younger players like Eli Harold, Tank Carradine, maybe even Aaron Lynch. It might include someone like Torrey Smith, who admitted to reporters he was very open to the idea of being traded to the Eagles. This team needs an entirely new look and feel, so expect some familiar names to be playing elsewhere in 2017.
4. There will probably be a new defensive coordinator next season
And a new coordinator in 2017 will mean more struggles from younger players trying to grasp the scheme. It would be the team’s fourth defensive coordinator in four seasons, a complete mockery of continuity. Give Jim O’Neil some breathing room: He’s been without NaVorro Bowman, Arik Armstead and now Eric Reid, arguably his three top defenders. But if York is going to agree to keep Kelly for a second season, there will likely be some stipulations about changes on the coaching staff. Midway through the season, the 49ers were on pace to have the worst run defense in NFL history. That was not expected, at all, from this defense. The entire premise of the 2016 season was to run the football with Carlos Hyde and keep things low-scoring because of a stingy defense. O’Neil is mostly at fault for that plan going haywire.
5. Colin Kaepernick could exercise his option to stay with the 49ers in 2017
After his 409-yard, three touchdown performance against Miami, maybe this isn’t the worst thing for San Francisco. But good lord, it would be hard to imagine a seventh season with Kaepernick still trying to prove he’s an elite starter. He’s obviously an improvement over Blaine Gabbert, but his ship has sailed. He’s still weighing down the 49ers years after both parties should’ve moved on. What looked like a win-win contract restructuring in October is no longer the case. Why would Kaepernick opt-out to enter free agency and risk ending his career? Miami fans were the latest fan base to serenade him with boos. He very well could be content competing with a young quarterback in 2017. The 49ers would have to eat $3.75 million to cut him next year, something York seems totally against — even if it means giving a young quarterback an easier transition period.
6. There are only five consistent players on the roster
Joe Staley, Phil Dawson, Hyde, Bowman and Reid are the only players the 49ers can count on to perform for an entire season. There are surely some young building blocks on defense — Armstead, DeForest Buckner Rashard Robinson and Jimmie Ward — but we can’t say for sure yet that any of these players will develop into a rock solid core. Meanwhile, playmaking rookies like Houston’s Will Fuller are already establishing themselves as reliable NFL players.
7. Coaches and players don’t seem to be irritated about all the losing
This is purely an opinion and I get how hard the entire building is busting their asses week-in and week-out. But the 49ers have to be the only 1-10 team in NFL history without major dysfunction. There is no finger-pointing, there is no calling each other out. Nobody seems to care that they are now a part of the worst team in franchise history. We’ve been critical of the laissez faire culture Kelly’s established. Losing seems to have zero consequences for players in the locker room and coaches on his staff.
8. The 49ers will have the worst season in franchise history and still likely won’t land the No. 1 overall pick
Thank you to the 0-12 Cleveland Browns. Luckily, there isn’t a can’t-miss quarterback in this NFL Draft.
9. Fans are jumping ship
The Patriots played a home game at Levi’s Stadium last week. Sports bars across the country, like The Point in Boston, have seen 49ers fans evaporate into thin air. What makes this hurt even worse is that the Seahawks have been able to sustain their success, the Cardinals have one of the best rosters in the NFL and the Rams are at least trying to solve a problem at quarterback. There’s also the Warriors, Giants and Sharks to invest your time and money into. The 49ers? They don’t have a tenable plan and people are tired of wasting hours every Sunday watching the same exact helpless mess.
10. There’s a chance Trent Baalke does not get fired
This is the kicker of it all: The 49ers are actually playing much more competitive football in the second half of the season, which could lead York to giving Baalke another chance. York has aligned his cards with Baalke in the past and a source in Santa Clara has already said the head coach and GM appear to be on a collision course year-end meeting, where there will be only one survivor. Parting ways with a third head coach in three seasons seems utterly absurd, but it is York we are talking about.
This 10-game losing streak is mostly Baalke’s fault. He’s had more than 40 draft picks the past four years and this team does not have star players or an identity. Oh, to be a fly on the wall with him watching film.
One thing is for sure: Santa Clara will be tsunami waiting to happen if both Kelly and Baalke are retained in 2017.