After spending a majority of the NFL regular season and playoffs as the Super Bowl favorites, the San Francisco 49ers suffered yet another heartbreaking loss to end the 2023 campaign. Another blown lead in a big game and an overtime marred with apparent mistakes will lead to an offseason of questions and criticism, and how they’ll respond will be one of the focal points of 2024.
NFL: 3 Questions The 49ers Must Answer This Off-Season
“Brandon Aiyuk will be a San Francisco 49er next year.”@RSherman_25 understands Aiyuk’s frustration but isn’t buying into rumors the WR wants out of SF pic.twitter.com/tU9OJAqT9j
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) February 14, 2024
So what do the 49ers need to focus on during the coming months in order to continue being one of the top teams in the NFL? Here are three big questions that the team must answer in during the current off-season:
1. Will They Pay Brandon Aiyuk?
There was immediate drama following the Super Bowl, as Brandon Aiyuk and his family made their frustrations clear. The 25-year-old wide receiver made his mark in 2023 by being the team’s leading receiver in catches, yards, and touchdowns, and wants to be compensated for it.
Aiyuk’s contract doesn’t end until next off-season, but he is playing on his 5th year rookie option, and likely wants to get a deal done prior to the start of training camp.
Nick Bosa had a similar situation last year, and showed up on the eve of Week 1 after San Francisco finally met his demands.
2. Who Will They Bring In To Be Defensive Coordinator?
A regression was somewhat expected when Steve Wilks took over the #1 rated defense from 2022, but the 49ers didn’t fall far. They still finished 3rd in total defense in 2023, and the Wilks-led unit was a big reason why the team was able to get to the Super Bowl.
His firing appears to put him in the status of scapegoat. But while San Francisco’s defense was solid against the Chiefs for much of the game, the unit’s performances in the playoff games leading up were questionable at best.
So who does the team bring in to try and keep the defense in the top-3? The team could hire from within and promote guys like Johnny Holland or Kris Kocurek, and even names like Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll have been floated.
3. Can Everyone Recover Mentally From Tough Postseason Exits?
The front office will do everything they can to retool and make sure that the team is in contention again in 2024. But what about the players themselves? Frustrations are likely growing in the locker room, with the team coming so close to glory in recent years and consistently walking away empty-handed, but they’ll have to turn the anger into motivation yet again in preparation for next season.
Much of the task will fall on the shoulders of the coaches, so it will be interesting to see how the team approaches training camp and how they perform out of the gates NFL next season.
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