San Francisco 49ers' One Big Question: How Will They Survive the Roster Purge?

San Francisco 49ers' One Big Question: How Will They Survive the Roster Purge? originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

In this offseason series, Athlon Sports’ Doug Farrar asks the One Big Question for every NFL team that will become readily apparent when the season does begin, and the lights are at their brightest. We continue with theSan Francisco 49ers, whose offseason roster reconstruction might look like a multi-year rebuild in the hands of most franchises. Can this team beat the odds as they seem to believe that they can?

Since Kyle Shanahan became the San Francisco 49ers' head coach, Shanahan's team has done just about everything... except win a Super Bowl. Two appearances in the NFL's biggest game at the ends of the 2019 and 2023 seasons, as well as two more NFC Championship Game appearances in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, point to the consistent overall success, and Shanahan's place in that.

But as it is with most teams, there have been dips along the way. The 2017-2018 49ers combined for a 10-22 record as Shanahan and general manager John Lynch looked to build out from the years of failure in the post-Jim Harbaugh era, and even after the team went 13-3 in 2019 and lost Super Bowl LIV to the Kansas City Chiefs, there was the 6-10 regression in 2020, as the franchise underwent its first roster re-do under Shanahan and Lynch.

Now, heading into the 2025 season, and coming off another six-win disappointment, the guys in charge are re-shuffling everything once again. While other teams were packing their rosters with free agents, the 49ers were engaged in a fire sale, as all kinds of talent — fullback Kyle Juszczyk, offensive guard Aaron Banks, edge-rusher Leonard Floyd, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, cornerback Charvarius Ward, and safety Talanoa Hufanga — were allowed to walk. Juszczyk was ultimately re-signed to a two-year, $7.5 million contract, but other than that, a lot of talent went out the door, and there wasn't a lot done to replace them. Tight end Luke Farrell, receiver Demarcus Robinson, backup quarterback Mac Jones were the primary additions.

Some of this was done to start over and get younger, and one of the primary moves behind that mindset was to give quarterback Brock Purdy a five-year, $265 million contract with $182.55 million guaranteed in May. Purdy's contract really starts to mature in a salary cap sense in 2026, so the ultimate advantage the 49ers had — the ability to build a roster with an inexpensive starting quarterback — is officially gone. The focus becomes different now, as so many of the team's best and highest-paid players — Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, Fred Warner, George Kittle, and Nick Bosa — are either approaching or are already in their age 30-plus seasons.

What was viewed as an organizational necessity will also be a tough row to hoe, at least in the short term.

“I think since Kyle and I have been here, we’ve certainly been a top-five … I believe, the No 2 cash-spending team,” Lynch said at the scouting combine. “In the last four years going into the fifth year, I think we’re the fourth-highest cash-spending team. At some point, you have to reset a little bit, or at least recalibrate. You can’t just keep pressing the pedal. I think there is some good that can come out of it. We need to get younger.”

Still, there is room for hope. First of all, the 2024 49ers led the NFL in FTN's Adjusted Games Lost metric at 141.2, which means that as much as everyone talked about how injuries affected the Detroit Lions (Justifiably so), no team had do deal with more games lost among their key players than the 49ers. And despite that, the 2024 49ers had the highest DVOA in the history of the metric among teams with 11 or more losses. In every case among the teams in the top 10 on that particular list, the subsequent season provided major overall improvement, and increases in wins ranging from three to seven games. In the 2020 season, these 49ers also had a horrid Adjusted Games Lost total at 161.4, they ranked 12th in DVOA despite all of that, and they were right back at it in 2021.

The draft provided a lot of talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball with first-round edge-rusher Mykel Williams, second-round defensive tackle Alfred Collins, third-rounders Nick Martin and Upton Stout, and fourth-round steal CJ West. Robert Saleh is back on board as the team's defensive coordinator, and this is still a defense with Bosa and Warner as the mainstays.

Purdy must live up to that contract, of course, but it helps that he has the NFL's greatest offensive mind in his head coach. The depth chart on that side of the ball is just fine as long as everyone is able to recover from 2024's injuries and stay healthy in the new season.

“Oh yeah, definitely," Shanahan said in May, when asked about Purdy's claim that there's a new energy in the building with all of these changes. "It could be for a number of reasons, but there’s been a lot more turnover this year than in probably the last six or seven years. But also, I think this is the first time we got a long break, too. The year before last year coming off the ‘23 season was one of the shorter breaks that we’ve had, having that tough loss in the Super Bowl, and coming back really just like six weeks later. It’s never fun to have January off, but those extra five weeks add up a lot, and I think guys were itching to get back this time, excited to get back, ready to go for the first day, and it’s been a lot more fun that way.”

So, maybe this is just a one-year reset as it was in 2020.

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Related: One Big Question for All 32 NFL Teams Before 2025 Season

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 19, 2025, where it first appeared.