The 49ers are among the teams facing the most pressure in 2025

The 49ers are at the crossroads.

Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are entering Year 9 of their tenure with the 49ers. And while they've had four excellent seasons, they've also had four terrible seasons, they've lost two Super Bowls they should have won and they just missed the playoffs.

Now, they're relatively healthy, they have the easiest schedule in the league on paper and they got back defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, which means people expect the 49ers to bounce back this season -- anything less than 10 wins would be seen as a massive failure.

That's why the 49ers rank seventh among the NFL teams facing the most pressure this season, according to NFL.com.

"Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch surely have earned the benefit of the doubt for building a team that tied the Chiefs with the NFL's best winning percentage between 2022 and '23 (.735)," writes NFL.com's Tom Blair. "But goodwill only goes so far in NFL fandom, and Niners backers likely will start to sweat a little more if they don't jump back into contention in 2025.

"The recent payouts made to key players (TE George Kittle, LB Fred Warner and, especially, QB Brock Purdy) should up the urgency to make the most of the time this core has together, with Christian McCaffrey (29) and Trent Williams (about to turn 37) moving up in age. A second lackluster effort will just add extra heat to the already-tricky job of building around team cornerstones who have transitioned fully into the 'no more discounts' portion of their careers."

What's more, the 49ers currently have more than $45 million in cap space -- third most in the NFL. So if they're in contention before the trade deadline, they'll be under tons of pressure to spend that cap space by trading for a player who will put them over the top this year.

And if somehow the 49ers were to miss the playoffs for the second season in a row, someone will get fired. Last year, the 49ers fired their defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator. This time, they might fire Shanahan or Lynch or both.

Big season.