Colin Cowherd says 49ers are old, expensive, and won’t win the NFC West

Will the San Francisco 49ers finally win that elusive sixth Super Bowl championship this season? Time will tell. But while fans of the team are dreaming and hoping for it, there's one host for Fox Sports who believes the 49ers won't even win the NFC West. As far as he's concerned, forget the Super Bowl talk, the defending NFC champions won't even win their own division.

Recently, on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the show's host predicted the Los Angeles Rams will win the NFC West in 2024. It's not necessarily that picking the Rams to win the division is that far-fetched. The Rams are a good team and have drafted well in the last couple of years. They have a dangerous offense. And their defense should be better this season, despite losing star defensive tackle, Aaron Donald.

The part that may annoy San Francisco fans is what Cowherd said about the 49ers, when he declared, "Niners are good, but they're an old, expensive football team. Watch out for injuries and the Brandon Aiyuk noise."

Yes, the 49ers are one of the older teams in the league. Yes, they have an expensive roster. And the situation with star wide receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, certainly doesn't help the team. But Cowherd is forgetting that he listed the 49ers as having the best roster in football. So even though Cowherd believes San Francisco has the top roster in the NFL, he still isn't picking the 49ers to win their division. And he's blaming age, finances, injuries, and Aiyuk.

The Aiyuk contract stalemate could very well end up becoming a distraction. Aiyuk reportedly will not show up for training camp, which begins July 23. If Aiyuk does indeed hold out and misses part (or all) of training camp, he likely will not be the same player fans saw in 2023. So the 49ers and Aiyuk need to get a deal done soon, especially in light of recent reports that Aiyuk has requested to be traded. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said a league source told him this week that Aiyuk "want[s] to be traded or paid. San Fran doesn't want to pay him [relative to market value] or trade him."

So if the 49ers aren't planning to pay Aiyuk what he wants, and aren't going to trade him, as they have repeatedly said, it could lead to a lengthy holdout. At some point, Aiyuk will have to report, to earn an accrued season. But when he does, if he returns without the contract he's seeking, will he be even more of a distraction?

This week, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said the 49ers are not contenders without Aiyuk. And ESPN's Ryan Clark added that QB Brock Purdy would suffer without his All-Pro wideout. It's fair to say that the 49ers aren't as good with Aiyuk.

But what about Cowherd's injury argument? We saw how the 49ers struggled in 2020, when several key players, including pass rusher Nick Bosa, QB Jimmy Garoppolo, and TE George Kittle (just to name a few) missed much of the season with injuries. If Purdy or Bosa go down, the season is in question.

The same can be said about any team, however. What will the Rams look like if they lose QB Matthew Stafford? What happens if the Houston Texans lose QB C.J. Stroud or the Dallas Cowboys lose linebacker Micah Parsons? Can the Kansas City Chiefs win another Super Bowl without Patrick Mahomes?

Cowherd is right about the 49ers being an older team with a disgruntled wide receiver. But that doesn't mean the injury bug will bite them any more than it does the other teams. And shouldn't an older, veteran-heavy team be able to handle distractions better than a younger team?

The 49ers will be fine in 2024. After all, as Cowherd also mentioned, they still have the best roster in football.

• Marc Adams
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