The future of these 5 49ers are under threat after a dreadful 2024 season

No one is happy in San Francisco right now. And really, who can blame them?

The San Francisco 49ers have a 5-7 record and are on the brink of playoff elimination. Couple that with insipid performances, an injury list almost as long as the actual roster, and just a general horrible atmosphere surrounding the team, and it has all the hallmarks of a season everyone would like to forget.

When people feel like this, it's only natural that what would follow is a desire to look for people to blame.

Scapegoats, if you will.

After all, how does a team that was ultimately one play from winning the Super Bowl fall into the ranks of also-ran?

Someone, or something, has to be to blame, and there's no doubt that much of the fanbase is calling for changes. This wouldn't be completely alien to the 49ers -- heck, this organization fired its defensive coordinator after losing out on the Super Bowl -- and would arguably be justified in many cases.

So, let's make those cases and look at five people who could (and probably should) find their jobs in the organisation under threat following the disappointing 2024 season.

Nick Sorensen

Let's start with Steve Wilks' replacement in Nick Sorensen. He's surely at the top of most 49ers fans' scapegoat lists after a poor performance from his defense all season. Quarterback Geno Smith's ultimately season-breaking touchdown run late in the recent loss to the Seattle Seahawks summed up how the coordinator has the defense playing: unable to make important stops and making baffling mental errors.

From being a fundamentally sound team for most of the head coach Kyle Shanahan era, it's alarming that even the basics seem beyond the defense this year. The Niners have been consistently poor against the run, failed to stop teams on third down, and have rarely pressured quarterbacks.

Part of this feels harsh on Sorensen. He's not responsible, for example, for signing aging veteran linebackers who can't cover like De'Vondre Campbell, or Dre Greenlaw's Achilles tearing during the Super Bowl, or having no competent pass rush opposite Nick Bosa, and so on, and so on.

Couple that with the myriad of injuries he's had to work through, particularly on the defensive line, and there are certainly mitigating factors against Sorensen being the second San Francisco defensive coordinator being fired in two years.

Realistically, though, Sorensen's biggest problem is that he hasn't generated any positives from his coaching. If you look across the NFL to the top coordinators like Steve Spagnuolo and Brian Flores, what you see is a unit generating more than the sum of its parts, i.e. despite injuries and the general attrition of an NFL season, they're still able to produce good play.

Sorensen cannot claim that.

While there are so many issues, it's hard to understand quite what's gone wrong. Sorensen has at best maintained the status quo and at worst made the team actively worse. Some players seem to be actively regressing, while outside of defensive backs Deommodore Lenoir and the rookie Malik Mustapha, no one can really claim to have improved under his tutelage.

There's questions over his schematics, too. For example, given the aforementioned pass-rush issues, his reticence towards blitzing seems self-defeating when the team can't generate any pressure. That's only got worse since Bosa exited the lineup.

Sorensen could point to the scheme ideals the 49ers clearly have -- Cover 3, zone-coverage based low-blitzing approach has followed the team through Robert Saleh, DeMeco Ryans, Steve Wilks, and now him -- as being limiting. But the fact is, Sorensen has been given the latitude to tweak things to his liking, and just hasn't made enough out of his expensively assembled ingredients and will surely be the first name on the chopping block this January.

Chris Foerster

Over here at Niner Noise, we've been raising questions about Chris Foerster and his position group, the offensive line, for a while.

From his bizarre comments about the team's strategy in the trenches, to the general underperformance of his players at each offensive line spot, it's not hard to make a case to fire Foerster.

While you could debate the team's strategy at the position, particularly if a coach can "polish" rough gems drafted in the later rounds or picked up cheaply in free agency, can anyone name a player Foerster has actually improved since coming to San Francisco?

Trent Williams was an All-Pro tackle before he came to the team. Left guard Aaron Banks has never developed into anything more than an average starter. Center Jake Brendel parlayed a decent year with a desperate lack of quality at the position into a big deal. Right tackle Colton McKivitz is wanted dead by most 49ers fans.

Beyond that, who else is there?

Dominick Puni has had a great rookie season, but honestly, doesn't appear to be a much different player than he was in college. As far as I'm aware, the only player who could be considered to have been improved by the 49ers is Laken Tomlinson, and he flamed out after getting a huge free-agency contract from the New York Jets.

Quarterback Brock Purdy's recent injury has shone a light on how much bad blocking he was covering up, with No. 2 QB Brandon Allen under incredible duress in the recent loss to the Green Bay Packers. Without Purdy's escapability and terrifying death-defying scrambles, a 49ers O-line that already ranks average-to-poor by most metrics in the league would look even worse.

The 49ers need a reset and a rethink of their strategy at the key positions along the O-line, and that should start with some fresh coaching input.

Brian Schneider

Speaking of coaching positions that could do with a reset...

Before we had time to get annoyed with Sorensen's defense or Foerster's O-line, the 49ers' most maligned unit this season was the seemingly aptly named special teams unit.

Leave aside Jake Moody's erratic kicking and Mitch Wishnowsky's inconsistent punting for a moment, although they are part of the problem.

The coverage units, both against punts and kicks, have been almost laughably bad, giving up multiple big plays in key situations. The most egregious one was probably the play that swung the Week 3 game against the Los Angeles Rams, where allowing a huge punt return led directly to defeat.

That said, though, it's impossible for anyone with any sense to have any faith in the Niners' coverage units. They've consistently blown plays, taken bad angles, and generally looked inept all season.

You'd be forgiven for holding your breath at every punt and kickoff.

Worse still, barring the odd flash from wide receiver Jacob Cowing, the team's return units have shown very little flash or sizzle, and rarely put the team in good field position. Even when San Francisco comes up with something new, like fellow receiver Deebo Samuel's long return against the Green Bay Packers, the special teams unit finds a way to shoot itself in the foot.

In this case, it was a holding penalty on tight end Eric Saubert, but it could've been any number of bottom-of-the-roster types on this year's 49ers.

Generally, I would advocate that players making mistakes like causing penalties, dropping punts, or failing to tackle, is not necessarily the fault of the coach themselves, and that's why the leash for Schneider might be longer than we think it is.

We should also perhaps consider that the Niners had, at last count, used an astonishing 54 players on special teams this year. It's hard to imagine a unit playing cohesively when you don't even know the player lining up alongside you from week to week.

That said, he's now in his third season with the team, and nothing seems to be improving. Even going back to last year's Super Bowl, special teams miscues were costing the team, and it's actually hard to recall a time where 49er fans weren't watching special teams plays through their hands.

Given that Shanahan is now on his second special teams coordinator, we can assume it's not under him, so it may in fact go back to the units under Brad Seely's command in the Jim Harbaugh years.

Whether Schneider should get the ax or not largely depends on whether you think a fresh approach is necessary. In his defence, though, until Shanahan treats it as an important phase of the game, and not with the feckless attitude he seems to approach it with, it's hard to imagine coaching mattering all that much.

Ji'Ayir Brown

If you spoke to 49ers fans before the season, most would've probably given you an optimistic view of both the team's secondary and young safety Ji'Ayir Brown
.

While he had his ups and downs as a rookie -- at some points being left out for Logan Ryan, who was signed off a cruise ship -- by the end of a Super Bowl in which he logged an interception and 11 tackles, most would've said the arrow appeared to be pointing up for the former Penn State product.

That feels like a long time ago now.

Brown has been erratic all season, consistently over-aggressive against the run and the pass, and getting burned for several big plays.

Two major things are counting against him when it comes to his future with San Francisco, too.

Firstly, Brown has been outplayed by another youngster in Mustapha. There's no disgrace in someone playing better than you, of course, but it seems doubtful the 49ers front office was expecting Mustapha to have to ascend into a starting role so quickly when he was selected in the fourth round of April's draft.

The fact he has, and is already playing at much higher levels than Brown, does not bode well for the latter's future.

The second ominous sign is the recent re-addition of former starting safety Tashaun Gipson, following the end of his suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

Gipson should be a well-remembered unsung 49er for his performances over the last two seasons, but when he's being re-signed at age 34 to potentially start at the back end of the season, it's a horrendous look for your current starting safeties.

All moves like that prove is that the coaching staff has lost faith in Brown. As a safety in the 49ers system, your first job is largely to prevent the big play. Flashy plays and turnovers can come after. The Niners turning to a much older veteran rather than a previous draft choice would seem to say a lot about where they think Brown currently stands.

Brown will likely be on the 49ers roster next season, but he's likely to be in one hell of a fight for a job. Depending on what happens with the defensive scheme, the team may even sign a veteran to compete against him, as was rumoured this offseason.

Regardless, Brown needs to take a huge step forward to avoid being the next Adrian Colbert or Talanoa Hufanga, who through either regression or injury, burnt bright and burnt out with San Francisco.

Deebo Samuel

It genuinely pains me to write this, as I'm a fully paid up Deebo fan club member, and I firmly (and may be the only one) believe that he was playing at MVP level in 2021, as he almost single-handedly dragged the 49ers to, and almost through, the playoffs.

Guys like Deebo and his wide receiver compatriot Jauan Jennings exemplify 49ers football under Shanahan: hard nosed, tough, and occasionally explosive.

Samuel, in particular, has produced some classic, unforgettable plays that will go down in folklore, such as 2022's ridiculous catch-and-run versus the Rams.

Unfortunately, time waits for no man.

Sad though it is, the 2024 version of Deebo lacks explosion, fight, and attitude. It's hard to know why that is, but perhaps its simply just his physical style of football taking its toll on his body. While he's only 28 years old, the tread on his tires from catching and running the ball (and occasionally throwing it, too!) must be beginning to wear him down.

Whisper it quietly, too, but while no one could've begrudged him his big deal in 2022, he has largely disappointed since then.

Is this a possible case of cashing the cheque and checking out?

No one can say for sure, but with the 49ers still having Jauan Jennings on their books, as well as Ricky Pearsall, who looks more than capable of playing at a high level, as well as re-signing Brandon Aiyuk, it's pretty easy to see how, in a cap-conscious world, Deebo might not be long for San Francisco.

There's some financial hoops to jump through regarding his contract, but cutting him with a post-June 1 designation saves the team $27 million over the next two years.

Sadly, it looks like that's where Deebo's 49ers story may end.