It’s here. The 2025 regular season is finally here for the San Francisco 49ers.
As exciting as it is to see the 49ers back in action, they start 2025 with a fairly difficult challenge. They have to face the Seattle Seahawks on the road in a divisional matchup.
Neither game against the Seahawks was easy for the 49ers in 2024. That is bound to be the case in Week 1, especially with the 49ers’ defense.
San Francisco’s defense will get a nice boost this year with Robert Saleh back as the defensive coordinator. However, that boost won’t be dramatic right off the bat.
That is because so many defensive starters are rookies, and those rookies have missed significant time due to injuries in training camp. Rookies like Mykel Williams, Upton Stout, C.J. West, and even Alfred Collins, who was slow and late to start.
These rookies have missed a ton of valuable practice and preseason reps. As a result, they have to use the precious snaps of a regular-season game to get themselves up to speed.
“Getting a lot of those guys back has been nice, but those guys missing a lot of camp too has been a struggle, starting with Mykel and looking at guys like [Upton] Stout and things like that,” Shanahan said. “Getting C.J. West back here last week too. So hopefully we have a good week of practice, get them back in the thick of things and they have a good first game.”
Unless the 49ers have some legitimate studs with their rookies, it’s going to be up and down for the defense. The one rookie who has the best chance to still look solid is first-round pick Mykel Williams.
“He’s looked good in the last few practices he’s been a part of, and it’ll get more and more each day this week,” Shanahan said of Williams. “I think it’s always hard when you miss a lot of camp. You know, he got hurt before the Denver preseason game and didn’t come back until after the last preseason game.”
Williams missed the entire preseason due to a hyperextended knee. There was no significant damage done, which is a tremendous sigh of relief.
But it’s still brutal he couldn’t get some preseason action. The bright side is that he played for the University of Georgia, so playing high-level football isn’t new for him.
Upton Stout may also have a chance to look okay. He’s a rookie the 49ers have been high on since the first time he practiced.
Still, the odds of most of these rookies who are starting and contributing to play well aren’t likely. Williams has the best shot, which is bound to hurt the 49ers’ defense against Seattle.
Source link
