3 biggest reasons to worry about the 49ers in 2020
By Peter Panacy
Coming off a tough Super Bowl loss, the 2020 San Francisco 49ers will aim to get right back to the big game and win it. But there are reasons to be pessimistic this upcoming season.
Not long after the San Francisco 49ers fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, Niner Noise pointed out why history wasn’t on the Niners’ side when it came to getting back to the league’s championship contest after falling short.
Over the past 10 years, only one team, the 2018 New England Patriots, managed to win the Super Bowl the following year after losing the big game the previous season.
If there’s good news, many of the previous year’s Super Bowl losers ended up making the postseason the following year. And with rumors the league is wanting to expand the playoff format to 14 teams, San Francisco’s chances to return to the postseason increase yet again.
The optimistic viewpoints are there, sure. The 49ers were constructed for long-term success. And for the most part, they’ve got a young core group with a good deal of playoff experience now.
That said, there are plenty of pessimistic reasons to be worried about the Niners this upcoming season, too. Unlike 2019, San Francisco isn’t going to be a surprise team on a week-to-week basis. The days of “they haven’t proven anything to anybody yet” statements are gone now, and the 49ers figure to get the best efforts from each team they play over the course of 2020 every week.
This isn’t a prediction piece, of course. No one is making a suggestive argument about the Niners being bad in 2020.
Instead, for all those worry worms out there, here are three reasons why fans can worry about San Francisco’s chances this upcoming season.