The San Francisco 49ers have been one of the most successful teams in the NFL over the past four seasons, accumulating three visits to the NFC Championship Game, as well as an appearance in the Super Bowl under the tutelage of head coach Kyle Shanahan.
While other teams have seen their success come and go, the 49ers have created a sustainable formula, focusing on the NFL Draft to acquire talent, leading to several homegrown stars over the past few seasons.
However, the 49ers are at the point where difficult decisions must be made, as their future cap space minimizes with every extension and restructure.
With that said, is the 49ers' Super Bowl window closing soon, or can they continue to achieve their level of success in the future with their current formula?
Sports Illustrated's Gilberto Manzano looked ahead to the 2023 NFL season, identifying contenders that may have to worry in the near future about being able to compete for championships due to their closing Super Bowl windows.
While the AFC's two best teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals, are two teams not listed at all on the 11-team list, the NFC's top contenders, the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles, are actually ranked as the top two that are envisioning closing Super Bowl windows in the near future.
"Ironically, the 49ers keep buying themselves time to win a Super Bowl by drafting quarterbacks Trey Lance and Brock Purdy," wrote Manzano. "But after falling short the past few seasons and a title drought that extends nearly three decades, patience might be low in San Francisco. The 49ers are in win-now mode because they traded away first-round picks in 2022 and '23 to move up in the draft and select Lance two years ago, and they relinquished this year's second-round pick to Carolina to land running back Christian McCaffrey. The 49ers also splurged in free agency adding interior defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, the former standout for the Eagles.
"49ers general manager John Lynch has been aggressive, and the results have been three NFC championship game appearances and a trip to the Super Bowl in the past four seasons, but that's not the end game. Lance is only in his third season, but it's now or never because he lost his starting job to Purdy and will likely receive another opportunity to prove himself with Purdy recently undergoing surgery on his throwing arm.
"Also, the 49ers ignored the analytics community paying a high price for a running back, and the only way to prove them wrong is by winning a Super Bowl with McCaffrey. There's uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position, but the 49ers have shown they can win with subpar quarterback play due to a stacked roster featuring tight end George Kittle, edge rusher Nick Bosa, linebacker Fred Warner and wide receiver Deebo Samuel."
The 49ers changed their formula in the 2021 season by selecting Trey Lance with the No. 3 overall pick, indicating their desire to get cheaper at the quarterback position with a rookie deal to shell out resources elsewhere, while potentially finding a developable, cost-controlled option over the next four-to-five seasons.
Injuries have led to the demise of that plan initially, however; San Francisco has created a cheap quarterback room in Brock Purdy, Trey Lance, and Sam Darnold for the 2023 season, which has allowed them to extend several of their important pieces on both sides of the ball.
Purdy and Lance's rookie deals both end in 2025, indicating that San Francisco has at least two more years with cost-controlled quarterbacks on the roster.
Still, with the numerous amount of extensions that have already occurred, as well as impending ones for crucial pieces like Nick Bosa and Brandon Aiyuk, it's unlikely that San Francisco can keep the entirety of his core intact even through 2025.
However, with Kyle Shanahan at the helm, as well as a strong core infrastructure of core players, the 49ers should still remain contenders for the foreseeable future.
