The National Football League is one of sports grandest stages in the industry. Elite franchises have captured mule Super Bowl titles such as the San Francisco 49ers.
For the past few decades, the NFC West darlings have set a standard of success with 19 NFC Championship appearances in team history. Many of those came in the 1980s, but several of them are more recent.
Andy Lindquist of NBC Sports Bay Area even reported on the ongoing trend that "San Francisco either has missed the postseason entirely or has made the NFC Championship game in every season for the past 22 years."
It's either been feast or famine for the Niners during this streak. While they have either made it to the NFC Championship game or missed the playoffs every year since 2003, the 49ers have only finished second in the NFC West once since 2010, and that was in 2013.
What does this streak say about the rest of the NFC West?
Two of the other three teams in the division have won a Super Bowl during this lengthy span. The Los Angeles Rams won in 2022 during Super Bowl XXXIV, and the Seattle Seahawks did so in 2014 at Super Bowl XLVIII.
Both of those teams have also lost a Super Bowl in the last 22 years as well, both losing to the New England Patriots. The other team in the NFC West, the Arizona Cardinals, lost their only Super Bowl apearance in 2009 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Despite not raising a Super Bowl trophy of its own since 1995 (30 years ago), San Francisco has endured more recent success. After winning in each of their first five Super Bowls before this 22-year streak, the 49ers are 0-3.
From 1980 through 2002, the 49ers made 18 trips to the postseason, making it to 10 NFC Championship games and winning all five of them. San Francisco would also go onto win each of those Super Bowl appearances, too.
While the NFC playoff picture has featured multiple teams from the NFC West over the years, the 49ers have relatively been a staple in them.
Or out of the picture entirely. They're rarely in the middle of the pack.
With one of the easiest schedules in 2025, San Francisco is expected to do much better this season and qualify for the postseason again.