The 49ers aren’t a favorite of ESPN’s Football Power Index in part because of their uncertainty under center. That same uncertainty under center plays a role in San Francisco landing in the top 10 of the Pro Football Focus preseason power rankings.
There are plenty of reasons to believe San Francisco can once again find itself among the NFL’s top teams in 2022. They’re coming off a trip to the NFC championship game, they’re returning virtually all of their key players, and new quarterback Trey Lance could potentially elevate their offense to a level it couldn’t reach with Jimmy Garoppolo at the helm.
PFF took a different tact in their preseason rankings though. They ranked the 49ers No. 9 and ran with the assumption Garoppolo will start with Lance as his backup. Via PFF:
One of the few teams that have a real chance of winning a championship without an elite quarterback, the 49ers have the ability to dominate because of Kyle Shanahan’s offense and the playmakers within it. Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the roster and may very well be the starter again this season. His play has proven to be good enough for this team to win when he is healthy, and Trey Lance may represent the contingency plan for the likely injury to Garoppolo rather than the 2022 starter.
That’s pretty wild!
It would be intriguing to see where the 49ers would rank if Garoppolo wasn’t still on the roster. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said the team still expects to trade the veteran signal caller once he’s healthy. If the trade market isn’t there, they may just release him to give him a chance to catch on elsewhere. Quarterbacks coach Brian Griese said he hasn’t even talked to Garoppolo, which strongly indicates he’s not in the team’s plans.
The 49ers may very well be one of the 10 best teams in the NFL this season, but that’ll be contingent on how quickly Lance gets up to speed as a pro signal caller in his first full season as a starter since Garoppolo isn’t likely to be a factor.
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