If you were building a power ranking of the NFC right now, the San Francisco 49ers look like a podium team.
Read more Bay Area events calendar for Sept. 11-17 weekly editions
You can make an argument they’re the third-best team in the conference — a serious contender.
The problem? They’d be ranked third in their own division.
Yes, they’re currently staring up at the defending champion Seahawks and the Myles Garrett-and-Aaron Donald-infused Rams. Seattle isn’t just a hurdle; they’re a fully formed brick wall. The Rams are a terrifying, star-studded science experiment.
That leaves Kyle Shanahan’s outfit with an equally terrifyingly reality: exactly zero room for error.
And bridging that gap requires mastering and dominating in the one phase of football nobody actually likes watching:
Special teams.
You might see it as the built-in bathroom break; the chaotic 15-second spurts of the game that only registers on your radar when it actively ruins your Sunday.
But the invisible, unloved orphan of the NFL needs to be the Niners’ secret sauce this season.
Football coaches love to bloviate about “complementary football.” In reality, they treat special teams like an annoying government mandate — an OSHA requirement for shoulder pads.
But in the NFC West, ignoring the margins is a spectacular way to get yourself left behind. In a division this top-heavy, special teams can’t just be a frustrating toll to pay:
It needs to be San Francisco’s calling card.
The Rams have the offense. The Seahawks have the defense. So what else could be for the Niners?
The good news is that last season, the 49ers deployed a surprisingly competent unit.
Credit belongs entirely to special teams coordinator Brant Boyer. He’s a no-nonsense task master who walked into Santa Clara, demanded Shanahan’s trust, and actually extracted real roster investments from a notoriously stubborn (and mostly special teams ignoring) front office.
Boyer didn’t just bring in aces. He brought practical, grueling, and perhaps Pop-Warner-level drills.
It was the kind of fundamental grunt work that Shanahan’s regime had happily ignored for his previous eight years. Because, let’s face it, practicing downfield run formations on a kickoff isn’t as sexy as drawing up a pre-snap motion for Deebo Samuel.
“He’s not going to make it complicated,” Shanahan said of Boyer. “You don’t want someone to come in and try to overly impress you with some gurued-up special team stuff.”
Translation: Basic competency looks like a revolution to a team that forgot how to cover a punt.
And it worked. Mostly.
San Francisco finished third in expected points added on special teams last season.
But don’t let that glossy number fool you. There’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Most of that inflated EPA success came from pure, unadulterated luck. Specifically, it came from opposing kickers repeatedly missing field goals. Was that the Niners’ doing? Probably not.
Look at DVOA — the catch-all metric that serves as football’s version of WAR — and you’ll see that the Niners’ special teams ranked a deeply mediocre 13th.
Read more Inman Down Under: Handshake agreement gets 49ers into Week 1 mode
That’s mandatory improvement territory.
Because if the Niners can’t find a winning margin in the game’s forgotten phase, they’ll find themselves inadequate on the whole when compared to their division foes and, perhaps, beyond.
A middle-of-the-pack unit will almost certainly result in a third-place division finish and an early tee time in January.
But they have the ingredients to leap from average to elite.
Special teams success starts with Eddy Piñeiro, who has officially become the Brock Purdy of placekickers.
Piñeiro completely bailed out Shanahan and John Lynch. The draft capital they burned on Jake Moody was a masterclass in hubris, and Piñeiro was the life raft they desperately didn’t deserve.
Signed off the street after Week 1, Piñeiro went a spectacular 28-of-29 on field goals last season, even flashing with a long of 59 yards.
His only miss? A 64-yard prayer against the Indianapolis Colts just before halftime.
It was a kick so agonizingly accurate that it hit the dead center of the crossbar and fell short by a few blades of grass. It almost felt more impressive than a make.
He earned Shanahan’s total confidence — a shock considering that he’s a coach who historically treats kickers with the warmth you’d reserve for a parking ticket.
Suddenly, he was begging Piñeiro to let it fly from deep.
And Piñeiro’s success earned him a shiny new four-year, $17 million contract extension.
“He came in and did a hell of a job last year,” Boyer said. “He proved his worth and he got rewarded for it.”
Beyond the kicker, the front office quietly raised the roster’s floor, providing more competence for special teams — which typically uses bottom-of-the-roster backups and third-stringers. They also stocked up on actual, breathing special teams aces.
The coverage units were loaded with specialized talent like Luke Gifford and Siran Neal.
In turn, Boyer and Co. turned a former weakness into a reliable unit.
But questions still linger in the third phase.
The punting job for the 2026 season will belong to Corliss Waitman, who beat out Boyer’s hand-picked rookie, Jack Bouwmeester, in a training camp roster battle.
Samuel was re-signed to a contract that turned him into a kick returner. Who lines up next to him on the goal line is anyone’s guess right now.
And the punt returner gig? It’sa crowded, chaotic theater.
Jacob Cowing is the clubhouse leader for Week 1, but he’s oft-injured and not exactly an ace. Behind him Jordan Watkins, Jack Jones, and practice-squad pickup Brandon Codrington are in the mix for the top job of catching the rapidly falling ball.
It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation — surely a champion will rise in the final days, right?
If only it was so simple. It’s likely that the punt returner gig is a massive roster headache as the Niners head to Australia for their Week 1 clash with the Rams.
But it’s a necessary headache. Because it’s mandatory if the Niners are to make hidden yardage an overt advantage.
The margins are razor-thin. The division is a brutal meat grinder.
A single block, a stray punt or one return could easily be the difference between a Super Bowl run and a January vacation.
Read more Ro Khanna weighs 2028 presidential run built on economic populism
The Niners need to not just embrace but dominate on hidden yardage.
Because if they don’t, they probably won’t like the result.
About the Author
