49ers

The 49ers closed their season with a Divisional Round loss to the Seahawks, and look ahead to what could be a critical year in 2026 with aging veterans like OT Trent Williams, FB Kyle Juszczyk, RB Christian McCaffrey, and TE George Kittle. When asked about their Super Bowl window, GM John Lynch feels they have a strong core of players who are still playing well despite their age. 

“We’ve got a core group of players that are outstanding players, outstanding workers,” Lynch said, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic. “Are some of them are aging? Sure. But, they’re still playing really good football because they take tremendous care of themselves and they’re special people.”

Lynch still thinks their team has great resolve after persevering through several key injuries this season. 

“I’ve never had a group — I’ve been around the league for a long time — that I’m more proud of for their fight, for their resolve,” Lynch said. “They didn’t blink. … We’ll be better for that moving forward and we get everyone back. It leaves you really excited about what’s to come.”

49ers HC Kyle Shanahan admitted that losing key players was a setback going into 2025, including DT Javon Hargrave, DT Maliek Collins, OLB Leonard Floyd, LB Dre Greenlaw, S Talanoa Hufanga, CB Charvarius Ward, and WR Deebo Samuel. 

“More so than the injuries, that was the hardest thing to overcome is how many good players we had to let go out of this building that went and helped a lot of other teams,” Shanahan said. “If you would’ve told me that we lost those guys before the season with what we were going into, I wouldn’t have expected us to have the record that we did.”

Rams 

• Although Tony Pauline of EssentiallySports writes that the belief outside league circles is that offensive tackle is a position of need for the Rams going into the offseason, he reports that sources tell him that isn’t true and they are pleased with both tackle positions.  
• According to Pauline, Los Angeles will look to sign OT Warren McClendon Jr. to an extension. 
• Pauline writes that McClendon is expected to command an annual salary of around $20 million.

Seahawks

• Tony Pauline of EssentiallySports, citing sources at the Shrine Bowl, reports that it isn’t out of the question for Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak to decline head coaching offers and stick with Seattle for another year.
• According to Pauline, Kubiak wants to join an organization with a quarterback already in place. 
• Pauline writes that the Seahawks are putting on a “full-court press” to retain Kubiak as offensive coordinator.