SANTA CLARA — The 49ers 2024 season was a disaster.
But as the calendar flips to 2025, Kyle Shanahan’s team provided some reasons for future optimism on Monday Night Football.
There’s no reason to sugarcoat it: the 49ers’ front office has its work cut out for them this upcoming (which can’t come soon enough) offseason. The team must dramatically retool its defense and rebuild its offensive line with at least two new starters (left guard and center). And that’s just the start of the necessary changes if the Niners want to play in Super Bowl LX in their home stadium.
But the 49ers’ list of needs is shorter on Tuesday than it was going into Monday’s meaningless game, as three young players impressed against the Lions, procuring significant roles in 2025 and beyond.
Let’s start with the star of the night, Ricky Pearsall.
He’s been open all season, and instead of force-feeding a Deebo Samuel or Jauan Jennings, the Niners made Pearsall the focal point of the passing attack against Detroit.
How refreshing was seeing a bit of pragmatism from Shanahan, the Niners’ offensive playcaller?
How awesome was seeing Brock Purdy and Pearsall have such easy chemistry in the passing game?
This is something to be excited about moving into next season.
Pearsall, who caught eight passes for 141 yards and a touchdown Monday, had the third-most receiving yards in a game for a 49ers rookie wide receiver ever and the most since Jerry Rice had 241 yards in Week 14 of 1985.
So much for all those “bust” allegations flying around in recent weeks. The box scores and the film told different stories this season. Monday, they converged into a dominant performance and an offensive outburst against the 49ers’ bugaboo all campaign, man-to-man pass coverage.
Pearsall was drafted to solve the Niners’ man-to-man woes, and with him sidelined at the start of the season, every team with a defensive coordinator worth their salary has dared the 49ers to beat man-to-man this year. The Niners’ record speaks to how well that has gone.
But upon his return to the field, Pearsall had been beating man-to-man — he was not getting the ball thrown his way.
That changed on Monday. And it wasn’t his two outstanding 40-yard catches or his one-handed grab on the sideline that should excite you most from the Lions game; it was a six-yard catch in the second quarter — a whip route that was broken off with such speed and ferocity it left the Lions’ defense dazed.
That’s the Pearsall I saw in practices — the player that had coach Leonard Hankerson yelling with joy at the top of his lungs in training camp. It, understandably, took a while for that player to translate onto an NFL field, but now that it’s shown up, the Niners’ offensive outlook for 2025 brightens. Pearsall caught four of five targets against man-to-man coverage on Monday, with the one miss being a Purdy overthrow that was intercepted.
We don’t know when Brandon Aiyuk (ACL, MCL tears) will return next year, much less what he’ll be able to do upon that return. It’s fair to wonder if Samuel will be with this team next year. There are still questions at wide receiver after Monday, but there is one less with Pearsall’s inevitable breakout coming to fruition. That’s a big question answered.
The Niners don’t need to question who the No. 1 cornerback on this team will be next year, either. Renardo Green’s rookie campaign has been marvelous, and Monday won’t look like his best game of the season. Still, he made a series of big-time plays — including a pass breakup in the end zone where he recognized where the ball was going, broke away from his man, and jumped in front of Lions tight end Sam LaPorta to not just prevent a touchdown, but turn the ball over on downs as well — against one of the best pass offenses in recent NFL history. At no point did he look overmatched.
Green is a special player. At a position that routinely eats the young, he’s thrived, playing well enough to be considered one of the best in the game. The team’s No. 1 cornerback, Charvarious Ward, might leave town once his contract expires this offseason. That doesn’t seem to be an issue for the 49ers, which speaks volumes to Green’s play.
And then there was the play of Isaac Guerendo on Monday.
The 49ers couldn’t run the ball effectively against the Lions. I blame the makeshift offensive line.
But Guerendo really looked the part as a receiver out of the backfield — he had a couple of sweet catches Monday.
Again, we don’t know when Christian McCaffrey will return next season or what he will look like upon return, but Guerendo looks the part of a great counterpart to CMC and the first backup running back to No. 23 that would not require the offense to fundamentally change with him in the game.
Guerendo could be the first third-down back the Niners would actually use to spell McCaffrey in 2025, and that bodes well for both the players and the offense, overall.
I know all of this might seem strange coming from me — I’m not exactly Mr. Positive — but it doesn’t require a deep dive to find reasons to be bullish on the Niners in 2025. They have their quarterback — whatever he costs — and a lot of returning talent for next year. Pair a great offseason with a fourth-place schedule and games against the AFC and NFC South divisions next season (a favorable draw, to be sure), and there’s ample reason to believe that 2024 was just a one-year blip.
All of that, of course, is easily said.
Now the 49ers have to do it.
