49ers embrace urgency after disappointing 2024 season

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The vibes were off from the start of last season for the San Francisco 49ers.

Contract disputes provided a cloud over the team throughout the spring and summer, the Super Bowl hangover and a third straight short offseason sapped some energy and a lack of roster turnover led to some staleness around the Niners.

Those factors and a bevy of injuries turned a Super Bowl contender into a 6-11 also-ran, leading coach Kyle Shanahan to deliver a blunt message at the end of the season about what needed to change in 2025.

“I felt guys weren’t ready to come back,” Shanahan said about the 2024 season. “I understood that. But I told them how I won’t really understand it this year. Not that that was right or wrong, but I couldn’t comprehend it. We’re off five weeks earlier. We all know how disappointed we are and a lot of us have played a lot of football here. But we’re going to have a team that doesn’t know what we’ve done in the past or how you guys have earned a lot of stuff, we need to show them.”

As the 49ers begin their final week of the offseason program on Monday, the change has been palpable.

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The team was able to resolve its major contract questions early in the offseason by reaching extensions with quarterback Brock Purdy, linebacker Fred Warner and tight end George Kittle without any drama or acrimony.

The attendance for the voluntary offseason program was high with most of the key players on hand to help teach the rookies and other newcomers the standard for how the 49ers operate. Star left tackle Trent Williams was one of the few notable players not on hand for the first week of on-field practices but was back in town last week.

Shanahan stressed the importance of showing up in April and the players listened, leading to the successful spring. Shanahan said he didn’t have to make any requests after the season-ending meeting and the players said there was no need for a group discussion about making sure everyone was bought in for this season.

“I didn’t think we had to do all that,” Warner said. “Kyle made a point of that at the end of last season when he said how important it was to be back for this phase because of how last season went, and we knew what we were getting ourselves into with a whole new group, a lot of young players. We all made the decision on our own to be back here.”

The urgency that may have been lacking at times in 2024 is back this offseason as the Niners want to avoid any sort of repeat of last year’s disappointment.

San Francisco had lost in the NFC title games following the 2021 and 2022 seasons and then fell just short in the Super Bowl in the 2023 season, losing the title game in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Those deep runs led to reduced time off with some players choosing rest over rushing back to be on hand for the entire offseason program.

That was not the case this spring as the team plans to incorporate several new starters on both sides of the ball following a roster purge in March.

“When your season ends and you’re not making the playoffs, your desire to be back in the building and to get that taste out of your mouth, I think is expedited,” Kittle said. “Guys want to be back for it. When you’re playing in the middle of February, you kind of need an extra month. That’s why a lot of guys don’t show up to phase two or stuff like that. But there is an importance of phase one, the team building stuff. Kyle wanted us to be back. I think guys were going to be here regardless just because they were ready to go back and play football.”

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