Downturn is painfully obvious
49ers don’t stand a chance if team has worst QBs in NFC West
A few oh-so- distant weeks ago, the 49ers were the preseason favorites — the prohibitive favorites, in fact — to win the NFC West, at a consensus line of plus-115.
Now?
Well, as you can imagine, things have changed.
The 2-3 49ers are as long as plus-1500, per Oddschecker, putting their implied chance of winning the division at roughly 6 percent.
It’s an incredible fall from grace that even the most ardent pessimist didn’t see coming, even in the toughest division in football.
Losing can be complicated, but I don’t think that’s the case here.
Yes, injuries will be rightly blamed for San Francisco’s underwhelming 2020 to date, but I think there’s a more pressing issue for the Niners.
If you’ve been reading me these last few weeks, you can probably guess where this is going
he 49ers went from having arguably the second-best quarterback in the division to now having unquestionably the worst, with the gap between last place and the rest of the field not looking particularly close.
Yes, Nick Bosa being out for the year matters. Yes, the neverending injury list of week-byweek knocks is a factor. But in the NFL in 2020 (and well before that, if we’re being honest) you can survive what the 49ers have been asked to survive if you have the right guy under center.
The Niners — whether it is Nick Mullens or C. J. Beathard or Jimmy Garoppolo — are yet to have that guy this season and at the moment, the outlook isn’t looking great for a turnaround.