The San Francisco 49ers' 2024 season was not good, no matter what way you want to describe it.
Through injuries and incompetence, the team a play away from winning the Super Bowl looked like a hollow shell of itself. Despite all that, the Niners still lingered on the periphery of the playoff race for most of the year.
After the 49ers bowed out of the playoff race, a discussion emerged over whether a postseason off was beneficial for a team that never looked like it had any real shot at winning the whole thing. The answer was "probably," especially if San Francisco would have ended up losing in the playoffs anyway.
The 49ers were clearly bruised, mentally and physically, from the strain of multiple playoff runs ending in agony, and having a full offseason might help the team in more ways than one, as head coach Kyle Shanahan alluded to in his end-of-year presser (h/t Niners Wire).
But, the NFC divisional round showed why that might have been the wrong idea.
The dominant Detroit Lions, winners of 15 games in the regular season, took a loss to the upstart Washington Commanders, who few expected to be able to hang with the Lions. Then, on the other side of the bracket, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled away from the second-half-surging Los Angeles Rams. The Eagles started the year 2-2 heading into their bye week with serious noise about the state of their team before rattling off a run to cement themselves, while the Rams started their season 1-4 with a bevy of injuries.
The moral of the NFC divisional round is that anything can happen in the playoffs. Football is ultimately a volatile sport, made even more volatile by the fact the playoffs are a series of single-elimination games. It's not about who the "better" team is. It's about who the better team that Sunday was.
For the Niners, a team laden with talent, the uncertainty of the playoffs could have worked in their favor. With their players and the right bit of luck, who knows how their season could have gone?
Ultimately though, their play during the regular season was so bad, they never gave themselves the opportunity. The playoffs are just another reminder that the 49ers squandered a great chance this year.
Now, they will have to put things back together for another chance next year.