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Today, we’re going to talk about playoffs. Yes, the NFL playoffs. You might find this strange given we’re a website about the San Francisco 49ers, a team with next to chance at sniffing the playoffs this year and next, but we’re going to do it anyway.
Notably, the folks at Pro Football Focus took a look at playoff scenarios for the entire NFC and they were unable to come up with anything for the 49ers.
For the Arizona Cardinals, they gave the obvious answer that protecting Carson Palmer would lead to more wins. For the Los Angeles Rams, they spend a good bit of time talking about offseason additions and potential improvement from Jared Goff, so the 49ers are well behind them at this point, it seems.
And for the Seattle Seahawks, they just need to stay healthy and not regress. So those are the scenarios, but for the 49ers, they “can’t envision a scenario where they head back to the playoffs.”
It’s not a controversial opinion by any stretch of the imagination. I have a rubbish imagination and most of it is skewed toward doom and negativity, so I have a hard time imagining it, but you’d think they could come up with something. Is it possible that Brian Hoyer is decent enough, Kyle Shanahan’s offense is varied enough and the young, aggressive defense is good enough that the 49ers make a push?
There’s also the possibility that the Rams and Cardinals still are not good, and then the NFC West is simply a bid to see who can usurp the Seahawks, a team with a lot of talent who have stumbled some in high-profile situations of late.
So ... can you guys envision a scenario where the 49ers make the playoffs in 2017-18?