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The San Francisco 49ers have already clinched a playoff berth, ensuring their 2023 campaign extends beyond Week 18. The team also won its division, guaranteeing they open the playoffs at home. However, the primary goal remains securing the top seed in the NFC and home-field advantage, earning a first-round bye in the playoffs and making the path to Super Bowl 58 as smooth as possible.
To achieve this, San Francisco may need to win its final two games, a necessity following Monday night's loss to the Baltimore Ravens. There is
a scenario where the 49ers can secure home-field advantage this weekend, but it is contingent on them beating the Washington Commanders paired with the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles losing their games.
The 49ers can't afford to underestimate the Commanders or next weekend's opponent, the Los Angeles Rams.
"We have to win these two games in the next—I'm losing my math—nine days, whatever it is," head coach Kyle Shanahan told Adam Copeland during an interview on Bay Area radio station KNBR. "... We need that first-round bye, and that's what we expect to get. And in order to do that, we need to win these two games.
"I look at it as the Rams game doesn't matter if we don't win this one, so we got to get this one. And when I look at this team, they've been down a lot in these last two games, and they made a quarterback change in both of those. And the guys come in and have taken care of the ball, and the other guy didn't take care of the ball and he turned it over."
The Commanders benched quarterback Sam Howell this past weekend against the New York Jets. His replacement, Jacoby Brissett, nearly orchestrated a comeback, falling just short.
While Commanders head coach Ron Rivera announced Brissett would start against the 49ers, a recent development has Brissett listed as "questionable" due to a hamstring injury sustained in Washington's Friday practice.
Of course, that development was after the conversation with Shanahan, which was recorded on Thursday and aired on Friday.
"This guy's (Brissett) come in and hasn't turned it over and he's just gotten rid of it," Shanahan continued. "And they have a lot of good players on offense—their skill receivers, their running back who hasn't played in the last three weeks, who I'm expecting to play this week. Those guys are a problem. They can make plays, and they can score.
"And yes, they not having [DEs Montez] Sweat and Chase [Young], that is a very good thing for us. I'm very glad that they don't have them, but their two inside players can wreck a game. When you have [DTs] Jonathan Allen and [Daron Payne] Payne, those guys, that's where it started last year when we played them. When they did have Sweat and Chase on the outside, it still started with those two inside players.
"So, I know they're out of it, and that's why you hope that a team isn't playing as hard and things like that. But when you watch how they finished these last two games, when Brissett's come in, and you hear the type of guy Brissett is, and how this team can rally, the type of coach Ron is, and those guys aren't going to quit on him. And I know they're going to come here ready to play.
"We had an emotional loss last week. We've got to make sure that we're ready to go, and we got to get down to Washington and take care of business."
It's already confirmed that the San Francisco 49ers will kick off their 2024 regular season at home against the New York Jets on "Monday Night Football." However, that Week 1 matchup won't be the only time head coach Kyle Shanahan's team takes the spotlight on Monday night.
Joe Buck disclosed on "Good Morning America" that ESPN and ABC have scheduled a second matchup featuring the Niners.
When discussing additional matchups beyond the debut game, Buck mentioned, "We know that we also have the Cowboys twice, and we've got the Chiefs twice. We've got the Bills twice. We've got another date with the
The NFL will unveil the league's 272-game 2024 schedule tonight at 5:00 p.m. PT. It is common for select week-to-week opponent matchups to leak before the official announcement. I've created this tracker to collect those leaks as the official schedule release time approaches.
As usual, the San Francisco 49ers will face each NFC West team twice. They will also play against the division champions from the NFC East, NFC South, and AFC West: the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Kansas City Chiefs, respectively. The 49ers-Chiefs game will be a rematch of Super Bowl 58. Additionally, the Niners are scheduled to play every team from the AFC East and the NFC North.
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The San Francisco 49ers remain among the betting favorites to win Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans next year. The Bay Area team being favored in most of its 17 games on the 2024 schedule shouldn't surprise anyone. San Francisco is coming off a Super Bowl appearance, after all.
However, the Niners aren't just favored in most of the games. According to Pro Football Talk, they are favored in all of them, including their Week 7 Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs—likely due to the game being played at Levi's Stadium.
"Some of the 49ers' game look like blowouts: They're favored by 11.5 at
The NFL schedule has been released and the San Francisco 49ers now know when and where they will play each regular season game. The divisional games are always important. You want to win your division above all else.
But the 49ers also have some important non-divisional games. Some of these games very well could play a part in NFC postseason seedings. Because of this, I've chosen three NFC games as the top non-divisional games for the 49ers. These are the five most important non-divisional games for the 49ers—the games that could play the biggest role in whether or not San Francisco wins a Super Bowl.
RELATED: Complete 2024 San Francisco 49ers Schedule
