49ers to have pre-draft visit with Mario Williams

The San Francisco 49ers won just six games last year after a Super Bowl appearance the season before. Most have blamed a league-high number of injuries for the team's regression and expect much more from Kyle Shanahan's squad in 2021 — assuming it can stay relatively healthy. The NFC West is highly competitive and could still be the best division in football. While San Francisco is not expected to repeat at the bottom of the divisional standings, it will be a battle to finish at the top. However, it sounds like oddsmakers have confidence in the 49ers. Bovada released the odds for the best overall record in the NFL. It's no surprise to see last season's Super Bowl participants at the top of the list. The Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the

Last week, Kyle Shanahan was a guest on "The TK Show" with The Athletic's Tim Kawakami. He got the chance to discuss the San Francisco 49ers' offseason program, his thoughts on rookie Trey Lance, new defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, and most intriguingly, passing on star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in the 2017 NFL Draft. "Anybody who had a chance to take Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun who didn't, I mean, everyone wishes we had a time machine," Shanahan said. "Before I came here, I had a very good idea that we would be able to get a free-agent quarterback the next year, one that I knew we could win with. So you're looking at these rookies … and no one at that time was considering those guys top-five picks, top-ten picks." When talking

There was never any debate in the minds of San Francisco 49ers fans. Jerry Rice is the greatest wide receiver to ever step onto a football field. Randy Moss had a different opinion, which was enough for the former NFL receiver to grab some headlines and start some debate in December. During a conversation with Terrell Owens, Moss said he was the greatest, followed by Owens. Yes, Moss placed Rice at "third or fourth" on his personal ranking. Most laughed at the idea that Moss should be considered the best ever. One of the many who backed Rice for the title is another Hall of Fame receiver, Michael Irvin. Irvin did so again when asked about the greatest

Adam Schein of NFL Network recently ranked the NFL's top worst-to-first candidates. The columnist went division-by-division and examined last season's last-place finishers, ordering each of the eight squads based on their chances to win their respective divisions in 2021. The team with the best chance, in Schein's mind, is the San Francisco 49ers. With a relatively clean bill of health this season, he feels the Niners should be much improved. After all, it wasn't that long ago that head coach Kyle Shanahan's squad played in the Super Bowl. "The return of Nick Bosa, in particular, changes everything for the defense," Schein noted.