49ers schedule 2022: 3 ways NFL screwed San Francisco

The 49ers finished third place within the NFC West in 2021, but they wind up having one of the toughest schedules in the league in 2022 as a result.

OK, before you non-San Francisco 49ers fans get all riled up because you think the Niners got the short end of the stick from the league when the 2022 NFL schedule was announced, let’s just admit that probably all 32 teams’ fanbases can find at least two or three ways in which their respective teams got the low end of the bargain.

In all reality, every team across the league is going to have at least one or two of those regular-season scheduling glitches that don’t make sense, right?

Do we have that out of the way? Good.

We knew heading into the 2022 season that San Francisco was going to play both the NFC South and AFC West, while also playing the obligatory six games within its own conference, the NFC West, and three at-large games stemming from a third-place schedule.

However, before Thursday night when the 2022 NFL schedule went live, we didn’t know how those teams would be lined up, which primetime games would be on the docket and how long any particular road trip would be.

We do know now, though.

It would have been much better if those in charge of engineering the league’s schedule this season would have found a way not to make life even tougher on the 49ers this season, as they’re already tied for the fifth most-difficult strength of schedule this year based on last year’s win-loss totals (.533 win percentage), and these three reasons stand out as why.