Why, you could ask? Nicely, that will depend on your perspective. The group’s backfield is decimated with accidents. George Kittle has been out. Deebo Samuel is de facto the one offensive weapon producing. San Francisco’s speeding protection is within the backside half of the league. Coach Kyle Shanahan’s play-calling has been beneath hearth.
And, in fact, there’s the quarterback scenario. Jimmy Garoppolo has been out and in of the lineup, and when he is been in, he is largely disillusioned. Trey Lance can also be battling accidents, and was so-so when he bought the beginning versus the Arizona Cardinals.
In accordance with Niners legend Steve Younger, it is the quarterback carousal particularly that has the group out of types. Younger’s evaluation, which he is basing on the perceived private dynamics between teammates, is attention-grabbing and well-founded given his personal background. It is also a wee bit dramatic.
Throughout a latest KNBR look, Younger in contrast this 12 months’s squad and its group chemistry to that of the 2019 squad, which superior to the Tremendous Bowl.
“In 2019, we had the perfect locker room within the league,” he mentioned. “And why we went to the Tremendous Bowl was a number of causes, however the principle motive was the resiliency of that locker room, and the management, and the folks that got here out of it, the folks that spoke for it. They handled all the issues.”
Now, Younger says, the Niners’ locker room is “fraught with terror” as a result of nobody is aware of who ought to begin at quarterback anymore.
“I really feel our locker room is just not nice, and I am frightened that it is fraught with terror as a result of now, six weeks in, Trey [Lance] could be taking part in if he was able to play,” he mentioned.
That is a daring evaluation, which Younger tried to make clear later within the radio interview.
“This example has made it very tough to have a cohesive locker room despite the fact that each guys have performed their elements very well,” he mentioned of Garoppolo and Lance. “They don’t seem to be poisonous. They’re attempting to do the perfect they’ll. In order that’s why I say it is ‘fraught with terror,’ since you simply hope that one thing constructive comes out of [their next game vs. the Chicago Bears]. And if there’s one thing constructive that comes out of Chicago, we will eke out some extra weeks with out an excessive amount of extra injury to the season, to Jimmy, to Trey.
“The extra injury that Jimmy has, then we’ve got to maneuver Jimmy, and there is nothing being supplied,” Younger continued. “Or Trey is broken as a result of he is younger and hasn’t performed properly. Now, the season’s over as a result of we’re now 3-8. That is why it is fraught with terror.”
In different phrases, to Younger successful is the one reply to a quarterback battle that’s, not less than for the second, a race to the underside. If Garoppolo improves, that solves all of the 49ers’ points each on the sphere and within the locker room whereas Lance develops for the longer term. But when Jimmy G is ultimately banished to the bench, Younger sounds involved that Lance may get thrown for a loop and wrestle a la Justin Fields in Chicago, which hurts morale each within the current and searching forward.
Younger is correct: The Niners are in a tough spot. Let’s simply hope “terror” is not the phrase precise gamers would use to explain the scenario.
