Most underrated NFL team in the NFC West: San Francisco 49ers
It’s tough to really gauge where the San Francisco 49ers are or where they’re going to be as a team in 2022. The 49ers made the NFL’s final four last year and they’ve done that twice in the last three NFL seasons. Just based on that alone, I think the 49ers are one of the most underrated teams in the entire NFL.
The primary reason why this 49ers team is underrated? They’re making a major quarterback change. San Francisco decided last offseason that Jimmy Garoppolo was no longer the franchise QB of the future for them and they made a bold move up the draft board to get North Dakota State’s Trey Lance.
The idea of putting an incredible talent like Trey Lance within Kyle Shanahan’s offense? That has the potential to be a big-time pairing considering how innovative Shanahan is, how smart he is about utilizing the players on his roster, and just how gifted Lance is physically. After having a year to digest the playbook, the 49ers are now Trey Lance’s team.
That is probably the most significant contributing factor to the 49ers going from one of the NFL’s final four teams to being a team that most people are sleeping on. Are the 49ers going to make it to the NFL’s final four again? I don’t know about that. If that’s where expectations are set, I think fans are setting up for a letdown.
With that being said, most of the focus in the NFC West is understandably on the Los Angeles Rams, the reigning Super Bowl champions. However, not enough attention is being paid to the 49ers, who have outstanding weapons on offense, and just a really fast defense that is extremely well-coached by coordinator DeMeco Ryans.
There’s a lot to love about the 49ers in 2022, especially if you buy into the Trey Lance hype.