The San Francisco 49ers and their Monday Night Football opponents, the New York Jets, will be among the final teams to kickoff their 2024 season.
This gives those who follow the team an extra day to dream about what could be for the upcoming campaign, as the Niners look to get over the hump and be the victors on the season's final day, something that's eluded the franchise since January 1995.
Let's use that additional time to make some final bold predictions for the season, two each for the offense and the defense, just to make things even.
We'll begin with the offense and the most important position of all of sports: the quarterback.
Bold Prediction No. 1: Brock Purdy will break 49ers' QB records... again
In his first full season as a starter, Brock Purdy broke the 49ers' single-season record for passing with 4,280 yards. He crept past former record holder Jeff Garcia, whose record of 4,278 yards stood for 23 seasons, with Jimmy Garoppolo in 2019 coming nearest to breaking it with 3,978 yards in his high-watermark campaign.
Purdy's 31 passing touchdowns were tied with that same Garcia season and Joe Montana's 1987 for fourthin a single season, sitting behind Steve Young in 1998 (36), Young in 1994 (35), and Garcia in 2001 (32) on the Niners' all-time list.
The thing is, Purdy not only missed the 49ers' 17th game last year because the team had already locked up its NFC playoff position but sat down for the bulk of the fourth quarter in games against the Cowboys, Jaguars, Cardinals, and Ravens (although not for good reasons that time).
That doesn't even account for a bad stretch during San Francisco's midseason losing streak, where a better Purdy might have a) won the team more games and b) seen his statistics fly even higher.
So for 2024, there's no reason that Purdy can't close in on 4,500 yards and break the single-season touchdown record, making it two record-breaking seasons in a row for the signal-caller.
Bold Prediction No. 2: Fred Warner will finally get into the Defensive Player of the Year discussion
It's no secret the 49ers linebacker Fred Warner is the premiere player at his position and has been for much of his NFL career.
And while he has been recognized as an All-Pro performer three times (2020, 2022, and 2023) and a Pro Bowler in those same seasons, he's never racked up the counting stats that are often required of guys who are in the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year.
For one, it's hard to do so as a middle linebacker, a position that often tallies up a ton of tackles but doesn't often see numbers like interceptions, sacks, or fumble recoveries add up throughout a normal season.
All that said, it's high time that Warner gets into that discussion, and I'll say that 2024 will be the season where he stands out and gets into that conversation throughout the campaign.
Part of that comes from uncertainty about who will be Warner's running mate at linebacker, with Dre Greenlaw set to miss a good chunk of the season after the Achilles tear he suffered in the Super Bowl. The mix could end up being a hot-hand situation, with De'Vondre Campbell, Dee Winters, and Curtis Robinson getting into the fray next to Warner throughout the season.
And then the bold part just comes from Warner needing to get his hands on the ball more often, something he'll do to get himself into the DPoY talk throughout 2024.
Bold Prediction No. 3: Deebo Samuel will have a career year
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel had his best season in 2021 when he pulled down 77 catches for 1,405 yards and six touchdowns while adding 59 carries for 365 yards and eight touchdowns. All told, Samuel logged 136 touches for 1,770 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Deebo was recognized for his efforts by being named both a first-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowler, and the production led to a contract extension for Samuel the following offseason.
By that token, this may be the boldest of all the bold predictions, given that the 49ers didn't have Christian McCaffrey in 2021 and newly-extended Brandon Aiyuk was clearly a secondary option for then-quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
So this isn't to say that Deebo will eclipse all of his numbers in 2024, but his training camp has suggested a player who is primed for a massive campaign, especially while Aiyuk gets back up to speed and rookie Ricky Pearsall recovers from his gunshot wound.
Look for Deebo to take advantage of the opportunities early in the season and get out to another incredible start (he had 882 receiving yards through eight games in 2021) to jumpstart another huge season.
Bold Prediction No. 4: Deommodore Lenoir will lead the 49ers in interceptions with 6-plus
There is a large swath of Niners who will be entering free agency after the 2024 season, chief among them are both starting cornerbacks, Charvarius Ward and Deommodore Lenoir.
A recent slew of offseason contract extensions for cornerbacks such as Patrick Surtain II and Jalen Ramsay suggest that neither Ward nor Lenoir will be able to be re-signed by the 49ers, as they'll have massive dollars going elsewhere, such as for Brock Purdy, during the 2025 offseason.
That doesn't mean that Lenior, who doesn't even turn 25 until a month or so into this season, won't be looking to have his best year so far as both a means to helping out the 2024 squad and as auditions for the rest of the league heading into free agency.
Having firmly cemented himself as the Niners' No. 2 cornerback, Lenoir has a good chance to continue to up his interception total as he has during the last two years, from just one in 2022 to three last year.
And while Ward will be plenty incentivized himself, especially considering he's a few years older than Lenoir and may be looking to cash in the last time as a pro, the latter's improvement year or year makes him a prime candidate to take over as the 49ers' interception leader in 2024.