The San Francisco 49ers are coming off of a 2018 campaign in which they won just four games and missed the playoffs for the fifth straight season, but going into 2019, there is some reason for hope.
No, the 49ers are not playoff contenders by any means, but there is a whole lot of young talent on this squad that could end up taking San Francisco back to the postseason in a couple of years.
Still, like any team on the rise, there are some holes on the Niners that need patching, and the solutions may very well be on their roster.
Here are three areas of concern for the 49ers heading into 2019.
3. The Secondary
San Francisco could have a potentially nasty front seven, but its secondary is a pretty big question mark.
Richard Sherman has clearly lost a step after tearing his Achilles during his final season with the Seattle Seahawks, and the remainder of the 49ers' defensive backfield is full of unproven names.
Jimmie Ward and Jaquiski Tartt have yet to show much of anything at safety, and 24-year-old Ahkello Witherspoon is coming off of a rough 2018 that ended with a PCL sprain.
Hopefully, the Niners' defensive front can compensate for the lack of overall talent in the secondary, but there is no doubt that the defensive backfield is a glaring weakness for the 49ers.
2. The No. 1 Receiver
San Francisco has a whole lot of young talent at wide receiver, like rookies Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd and second-year wideout Dante Pettis. Trent Taylor is solid, as well.
But who is going to be the No. 1?
The Niners don't really have any proven playmakers in their receiving corps, and while their group of receivers may be really good in another year or two, right now, we have no idea what it is going to look like in 2019.
Luckily, the 49ers have a stud tight end in George Kittle, who will surely be the top option in the passing game, but Jimmy Garoppolo is also going to need a No. 1 receiver to throw to.
The smart money is probably on Pettis at the moment, but that could change between now and September.
1. Jimmy Garoppolo's Recovery
There has been a ton of hype surrounding Garoppolo for years, but we are yet to really see results.
He was traded from the New England Patriots to the 49ers in October 2017 and ended up starting five games for the team that season, throwing for 1,560 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 67.4 percent of his passes.
It looked like we were finally going to see Garoppolo start a full season in 2018, but he tore his ACL after just three games.
Garoppolo has been on the mend and should certainly be ready to go for Week 1, but we don't know what to expect. Will he ever be the same again? Is he 100 percent? Was he ever even a franchise quarterback to begin with?
These are all questions that need answering, and given that Garoppolo is already 27 years old, they need to be answered rather quickly.
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