49ers are undefeated, but their success is a facade

San Francisco still has some very good players on their roster, but they are not nearly as deep as they were in 2023. That is largely in part because they had a disastrous offseason in which they lost tons of talent from their roster. The team lost Aaron Banks, Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Charvarius Ward, Leonard Floyd, Maliek Collins, Deebo Samuel, and Javon Hargrave in the offseason to either free agency or trade.

Those departures resulted in the largest spending deficit in NFL history. Depth is part of what made San Francisco so great, and now they don’t have it. Their thin roster will be compounded by the fact that they are maybe the most injury-prone team in the NFL.

Christian McCaffrey is one of the best running backs in football. But he has never been able to stay consistently healthy throughout his career. McCaffrey missed nearly all of last season with a variety of injuries, including calf problems, and a calf injury has already flared back up this season. The recently traded for Brian Robinson is a great backup, but he isn’t the level of player McCaffrey is, so a McCaffrey injury would still be detrimental to the team.

McCaffrey has contributed in both of the 49ers’ wins this year, though. Meanwhile, Brock Purdy and George Kittle missed the Week 2 matchup. Purdy has a toe injury, and Kittle is on the injured reserve because of a hamstring issue. Brandon Aiyuk is still out, and even Jauan Jennings is dealing with injury problems.

In relief of Purdy, quarterback Mac Jones was able to lead the 49ers to another victory. But they won’t be able to overcome the injuries and offseason departures forever. The 49ers lucked into playing the New Orleans Saints in Week 2, a team that happens to be arguably the worst in football.

Their win was far from dominant, which would have been ideal against a team as bad as New Orleans. The 49ers have better opponents coming up, though. San Francisco will play the Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the next month of action.

Purdy will be back in the fold soon. The quarterback has done a lot of winning during his 49ers tenure. But he is still arguably more of a game manager than an elite quarterback. He doesn’t have nearly as many weapons around him as usual. Without star players to feed the ball to, Purdy’s weaknesses may come to light. And the 49ers won’t be able to overcome that. In turn, the 49ers could very well miss the playoffs yet again.