The San Francisco 49ers head into 2020 with something that hasn’t really been part of their offseason in a long time: high expectations.
Sure, there were some ideas they could be playoff dark horses heading into the 2018 season, fueled mostly by the addition of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo late in the 2017 campaign, causing many pundits to predict that the Niners might be poised to shock the league.
But after Garoppolo’s knee injury derailed that season, there was little reason to think they’d be any good in 2019. Lo and behold, the team not only outperformed all expectations by winning the NFC West and representing the NFC in the Super Bowl, but they did so using a dominant defense and a strong running game.