Realistically, the 2018 season has been one to forget for the San Francisco 49ers. After coming into the year as potential contenders, they’ve fallen to 4-10 and were among the first clubs to officially have their playoff hopes extinguished.
Despite that, it’s easy to remain optimistic about the future. Jimmy Garoppolo is set to return in 2019. The defense has taken significant strides over the last couple of months, and is extremely young. Although there are some holes on offense, a couple of youthful playmakers seem to suggest good things are to come.
Instead of just making some generalized statement about this team’s long-term potential, though, I wanted to hone in on a few particular players.