There’s no shortage of ways to illustrate the dramatic turnaround the 49ers have undergone since head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch arrived in Santa Clara in 2017.
The most substantial thing that duo has done is quickly turn around what was once one of the league’s worst rosters. What was once a team almost devoid of top-end talent is now a club with three of the NFL’s 50 best players going into the 2020 season according to Pro Football Focus. Of those three, two landed in the top 15. Of those two, one made it into the top five.
Here are the three 49ers represented in PFF’s top 50 for 2020:
41 | DE Nick Bosa
It’s not a huge surprise to see Bosa on this list after he dominated in all 19 games he played as a rookie. By the time the 49ers’ Super Bowl run was finished, No. 2 overall pick had 102 pressures and 14 sacks. While he had an outstanding first year that culminated in a Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, PFF believes Bosa’s best is still on the horizon:
It’s just one year of play, but considering how good he was in college and the fact that his one season in the NFL was a record-breaking one, there is reason to believe that he is already one of the best pass-rushers in the game — and that he could get even better.
A better version of Bosa will land him much higher than No. 41 on this same list next season.
14 | CB Richard Sherman
PFF notes that Sherman would be higher on this list if he hadn’t turned 32 this offseason. Even as a 31-year-old, his play in 2019 was some of the best of his career:
He allowed a passer rating of just 45.3 when targeted including the playoffs, and that was the first season of his career since 2014 where that figure dropped below 50.0. Sherman has always been criticized for being just a zone corner, but he has been so much more than that — and even if he wasn’t, he has been so good at it that it’s not a valid criticism.
Unlike Bosa, Sherman’s best years are behind him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still a capable shutdown corner. He’s still one of the smartest players in the league, which should allow him to continue being effective even as he progresses into his 30s. The Packers and Chiefs both connected on throws against Sherman over the top in the postseason, so seeing how he adjusts if more teams start trying to beat him deep will be interesting to watch this season.
5 | TE George Kittle
It’s a little surprising Kittle wasn’t actually higher on this list given that he was PFF’s best player in the league for the 2019 season. Kittle is undoubtedly the 49ers’ best offensive weapon in the passing game, and his blocking prowess unlocks a lot of the deception Shanahan’s offense thrives on. What he did in his third year was the best tight end season of the last 10 years:
Over the past decade, five of the top seven single-season PFF grades at tight end belong to Rob Gronkowski, but the grade George Kittle racked up last season tops any of them. … Last season was his first truly dominant year, but it was so good that it’s tough not to rank him this highly based on what the future could hold.
Opposing defenses can’t love the idea of an even better version of Kittle, but that’s the trajectory he’s put himself on. His after-the-catch ability has allowed him to post more receiving yards through three years than any tight end in history, and he was PFF’s highest-graded player last season despite missing two games and playing through knee and ankle injuries. Perhaps Kittle peaked early and will start to plateau, but reaching the top-five on this list just three years in is a good sign that Kittle has plenty of room to build on a stellar first three seasons.
