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Why Warner is cautiously optimistic 49ers can rebound in 2025 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The 49ers had a disappointing 2024 NFL season, but Fred Warner is confident San Francisco’s experience with adversity will assist the team’s efforts to rally for a bounce-back campaign in 2025.
The All-Pro linebacker detailed how past examples of the 49ers’ resiliency on the heels of a down season can serve as the perfect motivational tool to return San Francisco back to prominence after a last-place finish in 2024.
“There is a couple things I would say. One, obviously, in the past, we’ve had down seasons. 2018, my rookie year was not a good year, but then we all go on to play a Super Bowl the following year. 2020, another down year, a lot of injuries, and we go back to the NFC Championship Game,” Warner said on a recent episode of “The Warner House” podcast. “So I say that as the first part to say that is encouraging to know that it’s been done before, but I say that with an asterisk next to it, because the last thing that you can do, or last thing that you want to do, is say to yourself, ‘Oh, we’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.’
“You can’t go about it that way, because if you look back at those moments, especially the one I think of is in 2021 we started that season after having a losing year in 2020, we started 2021 3-5. And I remember that feeling of going into Chicago, where, if we lose that next game, we’re 3-6.
“You want to talk about some heat on that derriere? That’s it. So anyway, the whole point I’m trying to make is, yeah, even though it’s been done before, it’s going to take even more of an effort, even more of everything to say you have a chance at getting back to the 49er standard like we talked about. So it’s going to be, to be quite frank, it’s going to be miserable. And that’s exactly how you want it.”
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The 49ers have made a habit of bouncing back strong after 10-plus-loss seasons, reaching at least the NFC Championship Game the year following such campaigns the last three times it has happened during coach Kyle Shanahan’s tenure.
Despite the lack of team success, Warner still posted an impressive 2024 season, earning First-Team All-Pro honors for the fourth time in his seven-year NFL career — an even more impressive feat considering Warner played with a fractured ankle for a majority of the 2024 season.
The 49ers begin a pivotal offseason with hopes of reloading for a deep playoff run in 2025, armed with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft as San Francisco seeks to add difference makers around Warner and the rest of its veteran core.
One thing is for certain, the established leaders on the team know what it takes to rebound from a down year. Whether or not they will be successful in doing so this time around remains to be seen.
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