49ers feel like they are cursed heading into the 2024 NFL season

The San Francisco 49ers have one of the most impressive NFL rosters on paper going into the 2024 season, but one cannot help the feeling that this team may be cursed.

Is there any validity to this feeling or is it just pessimism?

2023 felt like a year of destiny for the Niners. They stayed remarkably healthy throughout the year and got tremendous campaigns from all of their skill players. The only things you could point out as negatives were sort of nitpicky. Then-rookie kickerJake Moody missed some field goals. The run defense could go soft at times. These were privileged complaints about one of the best teams in the league.

Then, they got blessed with their seeding in the playoffs. The late-season collapse by the Philadelphia Eagles and the early postseason exit for the Dallas Cowboys meant San Francisco did not have to face either team in the postseason, which did not seem fathomable midway through the year.

The 49ers made it through their first two playoff matchups by the skin of their teeth, narrowly eeking out a win against the Green Bay Packers and then mounting a historic comeback against the Detroit Lions. The football gods seemed to give a little wink with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk's off-the-helmet catch and the infamous lady bug on the shoe.

This Niners team was destiny. The time was now. Except they weren't, and it wasn't.

One cannot help shake the feeling that that was their best shot. They had the Kansas City Chiefs in the first half of that Super Bowl game and should have put them away, but they let quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Co. stick around and beat them.

This rendition of the Niners may never get another shot like that again.

Now comes 2024. The injury bug has already come for San Francisco as has the hold-out train. Thankfully, they were able to resolve the Aiyuk situation, but the Trent Williams one lingered almost into the regular season.

Then came the horrific shooting of rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall the weekend before the regular season commenced. Thank goodness that he has been released from the hospital and is alive, but it just feeds into this general feeling that maybe the zenith for the 49ers was already reached and they are just never going to get over the hump.

It is rare for NFL teams to see the kind of sustained success the Niners have had. All empires eventually fall, and it feels like this current iteration of the Niners is now on the decline.

Of course, they can make this entire article look very silly by going out and winning a Super Bowl, but it is just not that easy. We forget sometimes just how difficult it is to make the postseason, let alone a conference championship, let alone a Super Bowl. The Niners have bought into head coach Kyle Shanahan's system fully and have played as a cohesive team these last few years, but if they continue to come up short, guys are going to care more about looking out for themselves rather than the team.

On paper, we all know the 49ers have the talent to get it done. But that does not erase the feeling that the high-water mark for the Shanahan years has already been reached and that this season will be the beginning of the wave crashing back down to shore.

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