It’s 2 days until 49ers training camp-week begins! We want to look at each opponent and provide a reason for and against the San Francisco 49ers beating them. We’ve included a poll for the community to vote on whether they expect a win or a loss. We’ll see what kind of prediction this provides at the end.
Week 1 @ Minnesota Vikings
Week 2 vs. Detroit Lions
Week 3 @ Kansas City Chiefs
Week 4 @ Los Angeles Chargers
Week 5 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Week 6 @ Green Bay Packers
Week 7 vs. Los Angeles Rams
Week 8 @ Arizona Cardinals
Week 9 vs. Oakland Raiders
Week 10 vs. New York Giants
Week 12 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 13 @. Seattle Seahawks
Week 14 vs. Denver Broncos
Week 15 vs. Seattle Seahawks
Reason For: The Bears offense
The Bears really don’t have much at all on offense. Mitchell Trubisky has the makings of a good quarterback in the vein of an Alex Smith, but he’s definitely not there yet and is going to need another season or two to really grow into the role, hopefully the bears are patient with his development.
Besides Trubisky, the Bears don’t really have all that much. Their wide receiver corps are a work in progress and no one knows if Allen Robinson will work in this system, much less after his injury in 2017. Taylor Gabriel can’t carry a wide receiver group by himself if Robinson goes down with an injury as evidenced by his work with the Falcons (he was decent, but not a game changer), and Jordan Howard is just ‘OK.’ Head coach Matt Nagy is an offensive mind, having come from the Kansas City Chiefs as their offensive coordinator, but he also did it for a couple years and it was under Andy Reid, so how much of a hand he had in that offense is anyone’s guess. He’s definitely the guy to get Trubisky up to speed, but if he can scheme with lesser talent and make them look like Pro Bowlers similar to Kyle Shanahan remains to be seen.
The 49ers defense needs to dominate this game and they should. If they really have improved like we are all hoping, an offense like this should not be an issue and right now, it won’t.
Reason Against: Vic Fangio
Remember what I said about Kyle Shanahan scheming and making players look like Pro Bowlers? Well the same can be said about Fangio’s defense. The Bears got Roquan Smith as their first round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and he’s going to make offensive players’ lives hell on Day 1. Fangio also has to love the Bilal Nichols pick-up at defensive tackle.
Fangio can scheme, taking less talented players and turning them into superstars. He did when with the 49ers and with players like Dashon Goldson who flamed out once leaving the team. Just because the 49ers have what is a top-10 offense on paper doesn’t mean they can stomp Fangio and he can make what should be a gimmie a very very close game.
If you can’t see the poll, click here.