Niners Nation
I would wager that most 49ers fans resident in the United States have not heard of a man by the name of Alan Hansen. However, in the world of British sports, he is responsible for one of the most infamously wrong quotes of all time.
Speaking as a soccer pundit for the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’ show, Hansen said of a Manchester United side featuring several inexperienced players following a loss on the opening day of the 1995-96 season: “You can’t win anything with kids.”
United went on to leave Hansen eating his words, recovering a 12-point deficit to long-time leaders Newcastle United to win the Premier League title, while also lifting the FA Cup.
The team wasn’t totally made up of young players. United had a well-balanced blend of youth and experience that allowed them to win one of the most thrilling title races in history. In the 2025 season, the 49ers will be hoping they have the right mix to be able to challenge for the Super Bowl again, with the game being held at Levi’s Stadium next February.
Yet when looking at the 49ers’ depth chart following the initial moves to cut the roster down to 53 players, it’s easy to wonder whether San Francisco is set to be a little too reliant on inexperienced players.
The 49ers needed to get younger to refresh an ageing, top-heavy roster, but concern about having at least six first or second-year players in starting roles for 2025 would be understandable.
For his part, general manager John Lynch expreseed optimism around the roster. Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, Lynch said:
“Yeah, I think 10 of 11 of our Draft picks, that’s a lot of Draft picks and 10 of 11 made it and an undrafted free agent made it as well. So, there is a lot of youth on this team. There’s a lot of opportunity with youth. The expectation, the standard doesn’t change. They’ve got great examples of guys who’ve done it at a high level in this League, so that’s really cool for these guys, but you don’t expect for it to go perfectly. Hopefully you’ve worked through a lot of that during the offseason, during training camp, these guys have played preseason games, because of some injuries in camp a lot of these guys have probably got more reps than they’ve expected. Now in the same tune, some of our rookies were hurt for a couple weeks during training camp. So, I think a lot of it just remains to be seen, but we’re excited about what this group has infused into our team. We’re excited about the team in general. Did a lot of talent leave this team last year? Absolutely. That’s the League and we made the best of it. I like where our team’s at.”
He added of their blend of youth and experienced superstars like Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner:
“It’s a...
