The 49ers are now 0-9. In a season already with low expectations, injuries have made winning even more difficult.
While many believed San Francisco could run into a win or two this season, last Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals increased speculation that a winless season could be in store for the Niners.
With an 0-16 record potentially on the horizon, the option to fully tank the season is always there. According to Bay Area News Group columnist Dieter Kurtenbach, however, 0-16 is not the way to go.
“You need to win the games. Like, they have to win a game. I don’t think that messes up any first-place thing. This 49ers team should not aspire to go winless, even if that means they don’t get the number one overall pick. Who cares? You’re going to be able to get a really, really good player, one that you need, with the number two or three overall pick. Go out there and really do try to win. At least one or two. And that should be the goal. I don’t think they’re capable of winning really any more than one or two. I don’t think they’ve been holding out on us to this point, and I think that the problem they had going into this season, which is they just don’t have enough talent, has gotten so much worse with all of these injuries, left and right, the injuries. It’s really incredible, frankly, how many injuries there have been.”
The addition of Jimmy Garoppolo certainly lessens the perceived need for the number one overall pick, with which the Niners would no longer need to draft a franchise quarterback. And despite the franchise’s bleak present, Kurtenbach thinks better days are ahead.
“That said, I’m still optimistic about just sort of the direction of this team. We’re seeing the true bottoming-out of the 49ers franchise in terms of the play on the field. I don’t think it’s ever been worse than it is at this moment. At the same time, I still feel like the direction–one, the arrow only has one way to go, and two, I think it is going up. I think Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh have done a really good job in doing their best to get the guys in the right scheme. When you don’t have talented players, it’s really hard to run competent offensive and defensive sets.”
Listen to the interview below. To hear Kurtenbach’s comments on the 49ers, skip to the 2:00 mark.