Inman: Best and worst of 49ers’ season rift with injuries and clutch wins

SANTA CLARA – More highs than lows checkered this 49ers’ season. It came up short of Super Bowl LX on their home field, but that was expected after March’s roster purge.

Not expected were so many clutch finishes and unlikely heroes, all while the annual injury bug took out many of their top stars. Here is a roll call for the best and worst of times in a 13-6 season that crash landed in Seattle last Saturday.

MVP/OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR

Christian McCaffrey’s league-high 413 touches nearly resulted in him producing 1,000 yards both rushing (1,202) and receiving (924). He scored 17 touchdowns in the regular season, but his best were the 49ers’ last two touchdowns, on fourth-quarter scoring strikes from Jauan Jennings and Brock Purdy in their wild-card comeback at Philadelphia.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR

“Next Man Up.” Or Robert Saleh, who became the Titans’ coach even after a 35-point loss. Honestly, it was slim pickings, otherwise. Deommodore Lenoir played every game. Rookie Upton Stout may have been their best defender. Alfred Collins flashed.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF YEAR

Eddy Piñeiro, who also gets the “Best In-Season Pick Up” award. He replaced Jake Moody in Week 2 and made all 32 of his field-goal attempts except a 64-yard try off the crossbar in Indy.

BEST OFFENSIVE PLAY

Jennings’ touchdown to McCaffrey was upstaged once the winning points came on Purdy’s  pass to McCaffrey for their final touchdown of the season. Then again, the best may have been the season opener’s winning touchdown: Purdy’s 4-yard prayer to Jake Tonges in Seattle.

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAY

Sealing the Week 5 overtime win in Los Angeles was a fourth-down tackle for no gain by Lenoir and Marques Sigle (and Chase Lucas and more). But that play doesn’t happen if rookie Alfred Collins doesn’t force a fumble he recovers at the 1-yard line with a minute left in regulation.

BEST SACK

Nick Bosa’s last-minute sackaroonie on Sam Darnold forced a fumble that Bosa recovered at the 49ers’ 16-yard line in the season-opening 17-13 win. Only 19 others sacks this season for the NFL’s fewest total.

BEST WIN

The last one, in Philadelphia, in the wild-card round, in comeback fashion, on a last-minutes touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to Christian McCaffrey, with a fourth-down pass breakup in the red zone, against the reigning Super Bowl champions, 21-39

BEST REGULAR-SEASON WIN

As dramatic as the 49ers’ 42-28 shootout was over the Chicago Bears in Week 17, nothing fueled their playoff belief more than a Week 5, Thursday night upset at the Los Angeles Rams that wasn’t sealed until a fourth-down tackle in overtime, 26-23.

BEST ATMOSPHERE

It’s hard to ever go against a win in New Orleans, but it’s easier to remember George Kittle dancing during a timeout with the Faithful in a road win over the New York Giants. “I’ve never played at a home game where I felt like it was kind of lopsided in that department,” Giants quarterback Jaxon Dart said. “They have a good fanbase and they traveled well.”

WORST LOSS

Statistically, and for finality’s sake,  it was last Saturday’s 41-6 blowout loss in Seattle. However, this designation goes to the 13-3 defeat to Seattle with the No. 1 playoff seed at stake at Levi’s Stadium, sparking the Seahawks’ victory cigar party.

BEST QUOTE

“That broke my heart, bro. It was sad. No tears (from Fred Warner). He’s a gangster. But I can tell you this: there were tears in the crowd.” – cornerback Chase Lucas, after Warner’s ankle injury in the Oct. 12 loss in Tampa Bay.

WORST BODY PART

Knees. That goes for the ACL tears that took out Bosa and Mykel Williams, and the 2024 injury that kept Brandon Aiyuk away indefinitely. Of course, Ricky Pearsall also wasn’t the same after a Week 4 posterior cruciate ligament injury.

SECOND-WORST BODY PART

Turf toe. Purdy’s Week 1 ailment was a new one to him, and it sidelined him 8-of-10 games before his late-season surge, with no surgery required this offseason.

THIRD-WORST BODY PART

Achilles. Losing Kittle to a first-half Achilles tear could have doomed the 49ers in Philadelphia, but Kittle helped rally them at halftime toward victory.

BEST INTERCEPTION

There was one? Not in the playoffs or final two regular-season games. So this honor defaults to Dee Winters’ pick-6 against Philip Rivers in Indy.

BEST OFFSEASON ADDITION

Mac Jones. Not only did he go 5-3 while Purdy was sidelined, Jones’ upbeat and fun personality kept everyone loose, flipping the 2021 pre-draft narrative in which 49ers fans feared his selection.

BEST SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY

Skyy Moore’s 98-yard return of the opening kickoff at Arizona, and while it fell a yard shy of the end zone, McCaffrey scored on the next play in a 41-22 victory that started a six-game win spree.

OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF YEAR

Guard Connor Colby, a seventh-rounder who started six games. Non-factors: Jordan Watkins (two catches), Jordan James (six carries, all in the season’s final 30 minutes), Kurtis Rourke (practiced three weeks but never activated) and Junior Bergen (practice squad).

DEFENSIVE ROOKIE OF YEAR

Nickel back Upton Stout, a third-round pick who managed five pass breakups, one sack and a forced fumble (near the 49ers’ goal line in Arizona).

BEST DANCE MOVES

Purdy for bringing back “The Dougie” dance celebration after a 2-yard touchdown run in Cleveland, and again a month later after scoring on the Bears.

MOST INSPIRATIONAL

Greg Papa, the voice of the 49ers, took a break from his legendary play-by-play on the team’s radio network while battling leukemia. Papa made a cameo to call the 49ers’ regular-season finale, and it was a shame the 13-3 loss to Seattle didn’t afford us a chance to hear him bellow, “TOUCHDOWNNNNN! SAN! FRAN! CISCOOOO!” We got your back, Papa.

BIGGEST DISTRACTION

Aiyuk’s comeback from a 2024 knee injury never materialized and the 49ers are done with him, after he bewilderingly went radio silent on them come October. He looked upbeat as he shadowed wide receivers in warmups through camp, the preseason and September. But it turned out the 49ers voided his 2026 guarantees ($27 million) in late July because he reportedly didn’t follow their recovery protocol.

BEST TRADE

Keion White, for stopping Jalen Hurts for a 1-yard sack that prevented a potential touchdown on the 49ers’ final defensive series in their wild-card win. Honorable mention: Moore (65 touches as return specialist, no lost fumbles), Bryce Huff (four sacks in first seven, none in final 10), Brian Robinson (19 kick returns; 4.3-yard average on 92 regular-season carries).

BEST TREND

No back-to-back losses, although they rotated wins and losses from Sept. 21 to Nov. 16. “That was one of the cooler things that I would tell to our guys a lot that I noticed with them,” Shanahan said. “… When you lose a game, guys always were like, ‘Alright, what can we do to not make that happen again?’ It wasn’t more like, ‘Alright that was their fault this week’ or ‘I did my job but that guy didn’t so that’s why we lost.’ You could just feel every time we lost a game this team was a little different.”