49ers injury history: Every season in which injuries dominated the year

Dust off all those electrical substation jokes surrounding the San Francisco 49ers (honestly, they shouldn't have too much dust on them at this point).

Sadly, the Niners have been more closely associated with injuries in recent years than they have Lombardi Trophies, and there's been no shortage of jokes jabbed at the red and gold over that timeframe.

Instead of seasons with bad injury luck being the outlier, they've become the norm—2020, 2024 and 2025 were almost comically defined by injuries, while San Francisco's Super Bowl run in 2023 featured a rare relatively clean slate of health in contrast.

For better or worse, and in acknowledgement of all those substation conspiracy theories, the 49ers' reputation for being an injury-prone franchise isn't going away anytime soon.

And there may be far more injury-plagued seasons in franchise history than fans would like to admit.

The worst injury-plagued seasons in 49ers franchise history

Considering the Niners date back to 1946, and injury-related data isn't exactly available or easily compiled for decades prior to the 2000s, many of the banged-up years for San Francisco have largely been unaccounted for.

Plus, given the rise and variety of official injury lists in more recent years, the complexity of injuries has been far more traceable.

As best as we can, let's look at the most brutal injury-beset seasons the 49ers have endured.

49ers' worst injury-plagued seasons

• 2026—Training camp blues: Before the regular season even started, the Niners were missing 20 players out of their 90-man camp roster.
• 2025—Kyle Shanahan's miracle work: Several season-ending injuries to key stars should've derailed the season, but Shanahan's coaching expertise resulted in a 12-win season and an unexpected Wild Card victory.
• 2024—Super Bowl hangover: Scores of injuries led to San Francisco using 140-plus gameday injured-reserve designations, worst in the NFL, leading to a 6-11 record following a brutal Super Bowl defeat.
• 2021—Improbable playoff run: How did the 49ers reach the NFC Championship game despite being the No. 3 most-injured team?
• 2020—The worst of the worst: Another Super Bowl hangover, and a historically unprecedented rash of injuries.
• 2018—Jimmy G's ACL tear: Jimmy Garoppolo suffering a torn ACL in Week 3 foreshadowed the Niners being the fourth most-injured team that year, going 4-12 as a result.
• 2014—Levi's turf monster: Levi's Stadium's debut year had far too many turf issues, and it's fair to say those played a role in San Francisco being the No. 4 most-injured team after moving from Candlestick.
• 1991—No Joe, no Steve: Joe Montana suffered a serious injury in the NFC Championship game the season prior, while Steve Young was limited to just 11 games, leading to San Francisco missing the playoffs.
• 1963—No Brodie, no good: One of several two-win seasons for the 49ers, losing John Brodie and many other key contributors made for a forgettable year.

What's truly interesting about the analysis on 49ers injury history is just how comparatively healthy the franchise was for much of the 2000s, a period defined more by a revolving coaching door, poor rosters and far too many losses.

That said, the rash of injuries don't necessarily coincide with the transition to Levi's Stadium. While nowhere near as devastating as 2018, 2020 or 2024, the Niners started to spike in injury-attrition rate in 2013, the year prior to moving to Levi's Stadium.

There are likely more causes (many of which are certainly random) than can be encompassed into a singular bit of research about San Francisco's injury history, but one can safely attest it hasn't always been that way.

Hopefully, it reverts back the other direction... soon.

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