The San Francisco 49ers got their schedule release last week, and it features several high-profile games, including five standalone games, as they received a third-place division schedule.
The 49ers will play the AFC West, NFC East, six division games, and three other teams that finished third in their divisions last year.
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While the 49ers did get a third-place schedule, it is still quite a tough look from the early go (although year-to-year success is very variable). So, let’s break down the schedule into chunks and see how favorable it is for San Francisco.
The early home stretch
The 49ers start the year with four home games, although the first is in Australia against the Los Angeles Rams. That feels like the NFL’s way of rewarding them for the international game, but they don’t get any extra rest in Week 2, playing at 1:25 p.m. against the Miami Dolphins.
San Francisco could have one of the best games of the year in Week 1 against the Rams, and they’ll have two favorable matchups against some of the NFL’s worst projected teams in Weeks 2 and 3 against the Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals, respectively.
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So, there’s a solid chance the 49ers start the season 3-0 for the second straight year. Week 4 presents another big challenge: a home game against the Denver Broncos, who were the best team in the AFC last year. Bo Nix is expected back for the start of the year, so he should be in action here.
Denver will be coming off a game against the Rams, so they’ll have two tough matchups in a row, but will be on the West Coast for back-to-back weeks.
The travel begins
San Francisco doesn’t get consecutive home games again until Weeks 11 and 12, as they have alternating home and road games from Weeks 5 to 11.
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Things start off with a road game in Seattle, which surprisingly isn’t on primetime. The Seahawks have back-to-back home games here, and the 49ers get another difficult matchup after facing Denver.
They then return home to face the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football, getting an extra day of rest before traveling to the East Coast to face the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7.
Following that trip comes the 49ers’ bye week, which is an interesting time. Yes, the 49ers traveled to Australia, but they had three home games after that. Then, it was a short trip to Seattle and one major east coast trip to Atlanta before the bye. That sets up for a pretty tough post-bye schedule with a ton of road games.
Out of the bye is the Las Vegas Raiders at home, followed by a road trip to Jerry World to face the Dallas Cowboys. Another pretty interesting and potentially difficult matchup.
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Then, San Francisco heads back home to face the Minnesota Vikings, and they get a back-to-back at Levi’s with the Seattle Seahawks in Week 12. That stretch there can be pretty tough with the travel, but San Francisco will really need to capitalize here in these first two parts of the schedule. After the home games to start the year, the 49ers face only one playoff team (Seattle 2x) over a span of eight weeks.
Rough ending
The 49ers really didn’t get any favors with the end of their schedule.
After facing the New York Giants on the road with a cross-country trip, they return back home for part two against the Los Angeles Rams. If that wasn’t tough enough, the 49ers get back-to-back road trips against the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs in the next two weeks, with the Chargers game coming on short rest on Thursday Night.
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Do the 49ers get a break after that? Nope. They return home to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 17 before ending the year against the Arizona Cardinals on the road.
San Francisco faces three playoff teams in four weeks, with the other being the Chiefs, who should be far better with Patrick Mahomes back from injury.
That’s why it’s imperative the 49ers start the year strong, giving them some wiggle room over the back half of the schedule.
Of course, it’s far too early to predict every single game’s outcome. Injuries are a part of the game, and one-score games can shape records to be better or worse than expectations. But, this is quite the schedule for the 49ers, and one where they’ll truly get tested throughout the year against great opponents.
