The 49ers have some lessons to learn from 2024, and dialing in on these three stats can help correct things entering 2025.
The San Francisco 49ers sorely need to avoid the disaster that was 2024 when they begin planning on the upcoming season.
Part of that will require head coach Kyle Shanahan and Co. to look back upon all that went wrong last season, leading to a 6-11 regular-season record and last-place finish within the NFC West. As painful as that might be, learning from the past should help Shanahan and his staff better prepare for a more successful 2025 campaign.
In some ways, Shanahan has already started this process by dismissing two of his coordinators, Nick Sorensen on the defense and Brian Schneider on special teams.
Unquestionably, some horrid stats influenced the head coach's decisions there.
Let's take a look at three key stats that pretty much reveal everything we need to know about what went wrong for the Niners last season.
No. 3: Player gamedays spent on injured reserve
One glaring theme from San Francisco's 2024 campaign is unavoidable: injuries.
As soon as the 49ers announced they'd be without All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey for a while way back in Week 1, fans cringed in response to what would turn into the most injury-plagued year the Niners have endured since 2020.
McCaffrey was ultimately joined by other stars, including linebacker Dre Greenlaw, left tackle Trent Williams, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and defensive end Nick Bosa, all missing significant chunks of time while healing. Yet San Francisco was beset by even more injury setbacks to role and reserve players, too, putting more pressure on delapidated units to overachieve.
They didn't.
In total, the 49ers reported a player on injured reserve on game day 156 times last season, significantly up from the 118 times in 2023 when they made it all the way to the Super Bowl.
That said, the top-seeded Detroit Lions used gameday IR reports a whopping 251 times during the regular season yet finished 15-2.
So, injuries to the Niners won't excuse everything.
No. 2: 3rd-down conversions allowed
There are plenty of problems San Francisco experienced on both sides of the ball, but the defense figured to be one of the primary issues Shanahan aimed to fix entering 2025.
If he wants a place to start, it could be looking at what went wrong on third downs.
Many a football pundit will point out games are won or lost via two specific areas: in the red zone and on third downs. While the 49ers were notably bad on offense in the red zone, this problem improved significantly during the second half of the season to a point where Shanahan's offense finished toward the middle of the pack.
The same can't be said for third-down defense, though.
By season's end, the Niners had given up successful conversions 43.06 percent of the time, eighth worst in the league.
That said, the AFC-leading Kansas City Chiefs were actually worse in this category, allowing third-down conversions 43.26 percent of the time (fifth worst), which means some additional criteria needs to be added.
Well, here you go.
No. 1: 4th-quarter scoring
KC largely boasted a "bend but don't break" defense under coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
San Francisco's defense definitely broke, especially late in games and at points when the offense also fell flat.
The 49ers surrendered an average of 9.7 points in the fourth quarter last season, and no other team in the league finished with a worse number here. Bringing Kansas City back into the fray to compare, Spagnuolo's defense gave up an average of 5.1 points in the final frame of regulation, which was a top-10 ranking.
The Chiefs weren't a fourth-quarter scoring juggarnaut, per se, averaging a middle-of-the-pack 6.4 fourth-quarter points on the year.
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But, the conclusion is pretty simple here: KC's defense held the line in the fourth quarter, while its offense maintained enough pressure to avoid a late collapse.
Considering the Niners averaged a mere 5.2 fourth-quarter points, fourth lowest in the NFL, it's not hard to see why Shanahan's squads fell apart late in games so frequently.
And the data proves it.