The San Francisco 49ers had an excellent 2022 season, making the NFC Championship game with a third-string rookie quarterback. However, the team fell just short of the Super Bowl when Brock Purdy got hurt against the Philadelphia Eagles, allowing Philly to cruise to the Big Game. Now the 49ers' offseason is officially upon us, and the team has some work to do in order to get back to the heights it reached this season. Here are the three major offseason fixes the team must make to win 2024 Super Bowl, from re-signing 49ers free agents to dealing with staff issues.
3. Take care of the 49ers free agents
The 49ers' offseason needs to start with taking care of its own. The roster is loaded with talent, and reaching the NFC Championship game for the third-consecutive season or even the Super Bowl starts with keeping as much talent as possible.
The Niners are actually in a good salary cap spot despite the large collection of talent on the squad. Since they aren’t paying a huge quarterback contract in 2023, the team has $13.6 million in cap space heading into the 49ers' offseason. That’s the 11th-best in the NFL.
They can use that cap space to re-sign crucial 49ers free agents.
Safety Jimmie Ward, right tackle Mike McGlinchey, and pass-rusher Samson Ebukam are the 49ers free agents that the team needs to keep in the fold this offseason. All these players have some issues. Ward is old (32 this summer), McGlinchy had his best season in a contract year, and Ebukam is an average pass-rusher.
The 49ers should try to improve on all these positions, but there isn’t a lot at these key spots on the free-agent market, and the Niners don’t have the draft picks to get high-end prospects. Re-signing these players for 2023 is the way to go.
2. Optimize late-round draft picks
Speaking of not having draft picks, the 49ers don’t pick in the 2023 NFL Draft until picks Nos. 99 and 100 in the third round. That means there will be no clear-cut Blue Chippers coming to the Bay Area in April.
However, by picking a starting QB with the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, John Lynch and company proved they can find real talent later in the selection process. Picking this late leaves little room for error, but it’s not a death sentence for the 49ers draft either.
Two areas the 49ers can target to help them get back to the NFC Championship or Super Bowl are center and cornerback. These two positions should present some solid options in the third round and at least provide depth at the positions, if not starters.
A lot will change through the combine and into the draft, but right now, two players to keep an eye on are Stanford cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly, who has good size and elite athleticism, and Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi, who won’t perform all that well at the combine but was simply the best center on college football last season.
If the 49ers' offseason can produce two starts in the draft at positions of need, that would be a huge win for the team.
1. Find a defensive coordinator to replace DeMeco Ryans
Whether it is the Houston Texans or Denver Broncos who tap DeMeco Ryans as their next head coach, he’s leaving this 49ers offseason. The architect of the No. 1 D in the league this year deserves a head job and will absolutely get one.
That leaves the Niners without a coach to lead the defensive side of the ball next year, though. Kyle Shanahan could go looking around the league for a new one, but his best buddies from past jobs mostly live on the offensive side of the ball.
The best move here is likely to promote from within.
There are three solid candidates to move up into Ryans’ vacated job in 2023. Defensive pass game specialist and secondary coach Cory Undlin has nearly 20 years of experience since starting his career with the New England Patriots back in 2004, and defensive line coach Kris Kocurek has nearly as much time in the pros and has done incredible work with the D-line the past few seasons.
However, the best candidate to take over for Ryans is linebackers coach Johnny Holland. The former NFL player has over 30 years of coaching in the NFL, even coaching Ryans back in his Houston Texans days. Many of Ryans' concepts can be traced back to his days playing under Holland, and moving this veteran coach up to the DC job would keep continuity on that side of the ball.
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