- Super Bowl Championships: 5
- Last Super Bowl Championship: Super Bowl 29
- Claim to Fame: The 49ers were the first team to win five Super Bowls
- Claim to Shame: Have only recorded three winning seasons since 2003
The San Francisco 49ers were the first team to land on the west coast in 1946. Like many things in California, the Niners were characterized by style and excitement.
After successful seasons in the late 1940s, the 49ers were granted admission into the National Football League in 1950.
While many consider San Francisco to be one of the most dominant teams of the latter century, they never won an NFL Championship prior to the 1980s.
Enter Joe Montana, problem solved. The 49ers drafted Montana in 1979 after the Dallas Cowboys passed on him. Two seasons later, San Francisco had its first Super Bowl and we had a golden memory of “The Catch.”
In 1985, the 49ers selected Jerry Rice who, well… you know his story: all-time leader in touchdowns, receptions, receiving yards… we could go on and on. Rice would help the Niners win four more Super Bowls, including three with Montana and one with Steve Young.
Fast forward to the present, and the 49ers have been fairly irrelevant in recent years. Finishing third in the NFC West last year at 4-12, the 2019 Niners are looking to get a season of decent quarterback play for the first time in years. Prized 2017 addition Jimmy Garoppolo lost most of the 2018 season due to a knee injury. But he’s healthy now and has hopefully learned his lesson about sliding and/or running out of bounds when he takes off.
Garoppolo has one of the best tight ends in the league at his disposal in George Kittel, and will be hoping to build instant chemistry with rookie Deebo Samuel. If the high-pedigree players on defense (Nick Bosa, Deforest Buckner, Dee Ford, Kwon Alexander) can be at least a sum of their parts, that side of the ball should be better than its 23rd-ranked DVOA from last year.
Basically, this team has the potential to be playoff caliber, but that would require not-insignificant improvement in almost every area of the game.
