The 49ers Finally Have the Right Mix of Veterans and Kids, and the Last Few Drafts Are the Reason
A Hall of Fame core in its prime, veterans on short deals who know exactly what they're here for, and a young group that's finally producing instead of developing. It has been a long time since all three were true at once.
I've spent enough years yelling about this roster to have earned the right to say something nice about it, so here it is. For the first time in a while, the 49ers aren't a team with a great top and nothing underneath, and they aren't a team full of projects waiting to become something. They're both halves at once, and the reason is the part of this operation I've historically been hardest on: the drafting. It got better. Genuinely better. I'm as surprised as anybody.
Start with the veterans, because that's the part that has always been here. Trent Williams is still Trent Williams. George Kittle is still the most reliable thing in the building and will end up in Canton. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are both back from the injuries that gutted this defence for two years, and if those two play a full season the whole thing works. Nick Bosa is Nick Bosa. Christian McCaffrey, when healthy, changes what the offense even is. That's a genuine championship spine, and it's in its prime right now, not three years from now.
Then look at how they filled in around it, because this is the smartest the front office has looked in a while. Mike Evans as a proven X. Christian Kirk on a one-year deal. Deebo Samuel back on a short-money contract. Ogbo Okoronkwo, KhaDarel Hodge, Demarcus Robinson, all veterans, all on deals that expire before they become regrets. That's the whole trick with veteran signings and this team used to be terrible at it: get the production without buying the decline years. Nobody in that group is going to be an albatross on the cap sheet in 2029.
And now the part that actually changed. The young players aren't projects anymore, they're contributors. De'Zhaun Stribling is the loudest example, a rookie the entire internet mocked on draft night who has been the best story of camp and then went out and caught seven balls in the preseason opener. But he isn't alone, and that's the point. Jordan Watkins quietly went 6-for-59 on ten targets in that same game. Kurtis Rourke went 12-of-14 in his first real audition at quarterback. Carver Willis is getting real offensive line reps as a rookie. That's four young players producing in one August, which is four more than some of the classes around here produced in three years.
Because let's be honest about what this used to look like. There was a long stretch where a 49ers draft class meant one guy who might start in year three, one special teamer, and four names you'd be Googling in 2027 to remember who they were. Junior Bergen was the last pick of the 2025 draft and got waived twice trying to stick. That's normal, seventh-rounders are lottery tickets and nobody is owed anything. But the middle rounds used to be a wasteland too, and a team paying Purdy, Williams, Kittle, Bosa and Warner can't afford a wasteland in the middle rounds. That's the math that decides whether a contending window is three years or eight.
The thing that makes me believe this isn't a fluke is what happened when the worst news of the summer hit. Ricky Pearsall was the first-round pick who was finally supposed to be the answer at receiver, and he's gone for the year after PCL surgery. Losing a first-round receiver would have flattened the 2023 or 2024 version of this offense. This one shrugged and reloaded, because the room behind him was actually stocked, veterans who have done it and kids who are doing it. Depth isn't a thing you notice until you need it, and this team needed it in July and had it.
I'm not going to pretend the roster is finished, because the depth chart makes it very clear where it isn't. There's no plan behind Brock Purdy that anybody wants to execute. The offensive line drops off a cliff after the starters. The secondary is asking a lot of players who haven't held up over seventeen games. Those are real problems and one bad Sunday turns any of them into the story of the season. Nobody should read this as a coronation.
But the shape is right, and the shape is what I've been complaining about for years. You want your stars in their prime, your veterans on short money, and your young guys pushing the veterans for snaps instead of holding a clipboard. All three of those are true right now. Whether that turns into anything in February is a different question and one this franchise has answered badly twice. The season preview lays out what has to go right. The rest of our coverage is on the 49ers hub.
More coverage: Bay Area Sports section · Bay Area Sports · Bay Area Sports Blog home