Predicting 49ers' final 6 games of the 2024 NFL season

The San Francisco 49ers' 2024 campaign has not gone as expected.

From the moment that wide receiver Rashee Rice of the Kansas City Chiefs crossed the goal line in February's Super Bowl, 2024 seems to have had a haze of discontent from a Niners perspective.

The offseason brought contract disputes with star players, short- and long-term injuries, and a general sense of malaise on the part of the players, something that has carried over into what has been an uneven season, to put it lightly.

And after Week 12's 38-10 shellacking from the Green Bay Packers still fresh, the onus is on the 49ers to make the remainder of their 2024 schedule count for something, even as injuries continue to mount and frustration, from players, coaches, and fans alike, seems to truly setting in.

At 5-6 with six games to play, San Francisco's season is not mathematically over, especially since the division-leading Seattle Seahawks only sitting at 6-5 and with the Niners still capable of winning games against the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals before the year is done.

But that would require the 49ers to go on a massive run with six games to play, with a final stretch that includes two of the better teams in the NFL (Week 13 at the Buffalo Bills and home versus the Detroit Lions in Week 17), the aforementioned divisional games against teams the Niners lost to earlier in the season via epic late-game collapses, and a trip across the country to take on the Dolphins in Miami.

With all that in mind, let's take a look at each of the 49ers' final contests on the season and try to predict where their record will end up this year.

Given how inconsistent this team has been, this is a difficult exercise, but one worth doing.

Week 13 at Bills -- Sunday, Dec. 1 at 8:20 ET

Even under the best of circumstances, this game would be a difficult one for San Francisco. The Bills are one of the best teams in the NFL this year, featuring an MVP-conversation season from quarterback Josh Allen and top-10 scoring campaigns from both its offense and defense.

On top of that, the early forecast suggests that it'll be a cold night in Northern New York, with temperatures hovering in the low 30s/upper 20s and snow possible during the day leading up to the game.

With the Bills coming off a bye week and a big win over Kansas City to firmly cement themselves among the AFC's elite, the 49ers would need a perfect performance to pull off the upset, something we haven't seen from them all season.

No reason to expect any different against this talented Bills squad.

Outcome: Loss, probably by multiple scores

Record: 5-7

Week 14 vs. Bears -- Sunday, Dec. 8 at 4:25 ET

This is probably the only game for the rest of the season where the 49ers might be favored to win and, to be fair, it's one they should win against a Chicago Bears team that, much like the Niners, has struggled to find itself throughout the season.

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has had two of his better games as a pro in back-to-back losses to the Packers and Minnesota Vikings, but Chicago will be coming off a third straight divisional game (at Detroit) before heading to Santa Clara for Week 14, albeit coming off the mini-bye that a prior Thursday game provides.

That said, if everyone is healthy, the 49ers should have enough firepower to take down the Bears, even if Chicago's defense has outperformed its offense this season.

It'll take the Niners figuring out their run game, however, since that is where the Bears' defense struggles the most.

Outcome: Win, but in excruciating fashion

Record: 6-7

Week 15 vs. Rams -- Thursday, Dec. 12 at 8:15 ET

If the Niners have any hopes of winning the NFC West and squeaking into the playoffs, they cannot lose another division game, which means this one on a short week against a Rams team that is healthier than when they lost to it in late September is vital.

Even back to full health, the Rams have been rather uninspiring, sitting at 20th in the NFL in offensive scoring and 26th in defensive points allowed, all while not doing anything particularly well (their passing offense is ninth in yards and its the best element of the team).

That said, the 49ers had a 10-point lead with less than 12 minutes to play against a depleted LA squad in the first meeting, and we all know how that game turned out.

If the Niners can keep their composure, they should beat Los Angeles at home on a short week, so with their backs against the wall, I could see the Niners taking a short win streak into their difficult final stretch of the season.

Outcome: Win, hopefully more convincingly so (but not likely)

Record: 7-7

Week 16 at Dolphins -- Sunday, Dec. 22 at 4:25 ET

If we were looking at this game a few weeks ago, there's almost no way you would have picked a struggling Dolphins side that was running out the likes of Tyler Huntley, Skylar Thompson, and Tim Boyle at quarterback, even against a team like the 49ers, as inconsistent as they have been.

But in five games since No. 1 signal-caller Tua Tagovaiola has returned, the Dolphins are 3-2 (including a three-game winning streak) and have averaged 29 points and 342.8 yards of offense per game. They'll also be playing for their playoff lives depending on the outcome of trips to Green Bay and the Houston Texans with a home game against the New York Jets sandwiched in before facing off against San Francisco.

The matchup to watch will be whether the Dolphins, who have struggled to run the ball all year, can get that part of their offense going against a 49ers side that hasn't played the run well this season.

This feels like a game where the Niners can't get out of their own way and old friend Raheem Mostert and De'Von Achane take advantage of a defense that has struggled to tackle.

Outcome: Loss, just when we were all starting to hope a little again

Record: 7-8

Week 17 vs. Lions -- Monday, Dec. 30 at 8:15 ET

There's no way to sugarcoat this: The Lions are clearly the best team in the NFC this year, and they will be looking to exact some sort of revenge after letting San Francisco come back from a 17-point halftime lead in the NFC Championship game last January.

Detroit boasts the league's top offense to the tune of 32.7 points per game through Week 12, and head coach Dan Campbell's squad complements that with the NFL's second-best defense in terms of points allowed, giving up a paltry 16.6 points per game to opponents.

The Lions have score 50-plus points twice, 40 or more two other times, and have been held under 20 just once: their only loss in Week 2 at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The silver lining is the Lions give up a lot of points through the air, but honestly, that probably has to do more with just the volume of pass attempts they've faced (396, 29th in the league) than an issue with the defense.

This one is probably going to be ugly. And on national television no less.

Outcome: Loss, it'll be a contest to see who can stomach the outcome longest before you turn off your television

Record: 7-9

Week 18 at Cardinals -- Saturday, Jan. 4 OR Sunday, Jan. 5

For a short time, we all had this game circled as a potential de facto NFC West championship game, much like it was against the Seahawks a few years ago on the season's final night.

It's pretty safe to say this contest won't hold that much weight, and depending on how Arizona finishes its previous five games, it may hold no weight at all.

The outcome may be dependent on that as well.

If the Cardinals need the game to win the division, likely their only path of getting into the playoffs, then you'd expect a full complement of players to ensure they do so. But if Arizona already has the division wrapped up, like the Niners did last year in the final game against the Rams, or someone else has taken hold of the division title (likely Seattle), then it may not matter at all.

Given the rest of the Cardinals' schedule, they looks set to get to at least nine wins heading into this one, meaning it will probably matter to them.

If that's the case, the 49ers can only play spoilers, which doesn't seem like enough for a time with such high aspirations to get up for.

Outcome: Loss, an annoying one again, but it doesn't matter anyway

Final record: 7-10

There's been a lot of talk about comparing this team to the 2020 squad, which was also coming off Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs and suffered its way through an injury-plagued campaign en route to a losing record.

Sure, that team faced bigger, longer term loses (remember Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas tearing their ACLs two plays apart in Week 2 at MetLife Stadium), was missing its starting quarterback for large chunks of the year, and only got 15 total games from offensive weapons like George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, but the comparison feels apt in many ways.

Call it what you want, but San Francisco has played a lot of games over the last three seasons, and it appears that it has finally caught up this season.

Finishing with a losing record won't feel good, but maybe it's a wake-up call to take some action in the offseason and really make a push to get better in 2025.