NFL 25 Dream Teams that ended up being failures
By Nick Villano
NFL 25 Dream Teams that ended up being failures: 22. 2014 San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers were a model franchise that others strived to be like in 2012 and 2013. Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick led this franchise to back-to-back-to-back NFC Championship Games, and they even made it to one Super Bowl. Players wanted to come here because it meant they could compete for a Super Bowl. It was as much of a sure thing as any team in the league.
They signed Anquon Boldin to play next to Michael Crabtree. They also signed Donte Whitner to a pretty big contract as they were bringing most of their championship-level team back. Just about everyone was coming back, and it was time for this team to win a Super Bowl.
It didn’t work out. Patrick Willis and NaVarro Bowman were both injured in the middle of the season and missed significant time.
The thing that really irked everyone is the 49ers publically decided to not extend Jim Harbaugh’s contract past this season despite the previous success. This really was a distraction for most of the season. Speaking of distraction, Alex Boone and Vernon Davis both held out in training camp for bigger deals.
The entire offense fell off at the same time. Kaepernick no longer looked like a superstar. Davis could no longer create separation and needed the ball to be perfect to make a play. Crabtree seemed distracted all season as he was working his way back from an injury in 2013. Put together issues between the coach and the front office, the regression of the offense, and a landfill’s worth of injuries, and it leads to one of the biggest disappointments of this decade.