For the second season in a row, the San Francisco 49ers have one of the toughest list of opponents in the upcoming campaign. This flies in the face of the NFL’s oft-stated goal of achieving parity among the teams, thereby increasing and extending fan interest well into the season.
In theory, a low finish in one season should result in a less difficult slate of opponents the following year. But the Niners, who are engaged in a painful “rebuilding” phase of the franchise’s history, finished last season with a dismal 5-11 record. Only four teams finished with worse records and two others tied the Niners. Yet, the announced list of Niners’ foes for 2016-17 has a combined win-loss record of 142-115 (0.555) for the just-concluded season.
That is tied with the Atlanta Falcons for the toughest record of opponents this season. But it seems like part of a pattern. The combined records of their opponents in the 2015 campaign was .539, second only to the Chicago Bears for toughness of schedule. This despite a middle-of-the-pack 8-8 record the preceding season.
One partial explanation for the Niners’ schedule challenges is that the NFC West has transformed into arguably the toughest conference in the league over the past few seasons. That means, e.g., this season they will face the Seahawks (10-6 in 2015) and Falcons (13-3) twice, giving them a huge handicap of opponents with a combined record of 23-9 (.719) before the schedulers get into options.
Still, I can’t help wonder if there isn’t a bit of revenge lurking here. After all, the Niners were a dynasty for nearly 20 years until they (yeah, I’m lookin’ at you, Trent Baalke and Jed York) shot themselves in the foot at the end of last season. Even without revenge, the satisfaction of seeing the Niners struggle is at least likely to bring a smile to some NFL lips,