The San Francisco 49ers are one of the most decorated franchises in NFL history. However, the franchise has not won a Super Bowl since 1994, and since then, there has been a lot of heartbreak.
A wild statistic captures the boom and bust years since that last Lombardi Trophy.
Fans need no reminder that the 49ers have done literally everything except win a Super Bowl in the past 15 years or so. They came tantalizingly close to winning it all in the 2012 season and then lost two close games to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2019 and 2023 seasons.
The Niners have made deep playoff runs each of the last seven times they made the playoffs, making it at least to the NFC Championship game every time.
Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer shared an interesting stat about the Niners on the social media platform X:
Crazy fact another team passed along to me last week—In each of the last 22 seasons, going all the way back to 2003, the @49ers have either made it to the NFC title game (7 times) or missed the playoffs entirely (15 times).
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 24, 2024
They've had 7 HCs over that span.
If you cannot access the post, Breer shares that since the 2003 season, the 49ers made the playoffs seven times and missed it 15 times. Each time they made the playoffs they were one of the last four teams remaining, making it to the Super Bowl three of those seven times.
But this stat shows the Niners have not had a very early exit from the playoffs in a long time. They have not lost in the playoffs prior to the NFC Championship game since 2002, which means they have won at least one playoff game each of those seven appearances.
It is fitting that the 49ers, a team named for those who went out west seeking gold and either made it rich or came up empty, have had such booms and busts over the last 20 years. There were the lean years under head coaches Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan, and Mike Singletary and then big boom years when Jim Harbaugh came in 2011 and led the team to three straight deep playoff runs that all ended in bitter defeat.
Harbaugh was let go due to his acrimonious relationship with general manager Trent Baalke after an 8-8 2014 campaign, which ushered in even more bust years under Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly. The boom years have returned as of late under head coach Kyle Shanahan, who has led the team to four playoff berths which resulted in two losses in the NFC Championship game and two Super Bowl losses.
His tenure has had bust years as well, and 2024 certainly falls into that category. The Niners are eliminated from playoff contention, so at the very least fans will not have to endure another postseason heartbreak.
We will have to wait and see how 2025 goes for the team. One hopes that 2024 was just a brief outlier and that San Francisco can get back on track and finally get over that hump and win a Super Bowl.
But if the last 20 years are any indication, the 49ers will continue their roller coaster ride of boom or bust seasons.