Where Do the 49ers Go From Here?
By David Ochoa
Just a mere week ago, the San Francisco 49ers were in a much different position. With free agency and the new year starting on Tuesday, the 49ers are hardly the same team as they were seven days ago.
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Last Friday, Patrick Willis wasn’t retiring, Frank Gore was still going to be a 49er, Mike Iupati wasn’t going to a division rival, the 49ers still had no deep threat, they still had their starting corners, and other big changes still hadn’t happened yet.
After all this, what are the 49ers planning to do? How does a team who wants to legitimately compete for a championship bounce back from losing so many key pieces?
General Manager Trent Baalke has done a great job the last few years preparing the 49ers for something like this. Obviously one of the best linebackers in the history of the NFL deciding to retire at 29 years old wasn’t a part of his plans, but Baalke has earned the benefit of the doubt to say he saw it coming.
The drafting that the 49ers have done over the last few years has put them in a position to make an almost seamless transition when losing so many players.
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Chris Borland will replace Willis. Carlos Hyde and Kendall Hunter will replace Gore. Brandon Thomas, Marcus Martin, or Joe Looney will replace Iupati. Dontae Johnson, Chris Cook, Jimmie Ward, Keith Reaser, or Kenneth Acker will replace Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox. Torrey Smith will replace Michael Crabtree.
With the 49ers picking the highest they have in the last four years, the team is sure to shore up any holes they still might have even after some good drafting.
Besides Willis retiring, everything else that has happened was expected by the outside world and known by the 49ers. Now obviously there might be some downgrades, but the gaps between some of these players are not as big as some people are making them.
The panicking that the 49ers fanbase and the rest of the football universe is making is very much overblown. Yes the 49ers suffered some losses on the Monday that will probably live on in infamy in the 49ers’ history, but the 49ers absorbed the blow and are up and ready to take a swing back.