Kurtenbach: The 49ers have a path to the top of the NFC. Will they take it?

Anyone with a functioning pair of corneas can see that the San Francisco 49ers are currently looking up at the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West pecking order.

If the division were a high school cafeteria, the Niners are currently sitting near the trash cans while Sean McVay and Mike Macdonald hold court at the cool kids’ table.

But if you think San Francisco is entirely out of the mix to win the NFC next year, you’re mistaking a temporary, in-many-ways-planned setback for a permanent residency.

Where are these other elite NFC teams the Niners should fear? Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago? I won’t even entertain the notion of an NFC East or South team being a top contender.

And why can’t the Niners close the gap with Seattle and the Rams this spring?

The Illusion of Division Invincibility

The reality of the NFL is that superiority is as fragile as a wet paper towel. The Rams and Seahawks are both massive question marks to maintain their divisional stranglehold, albeit for entirely different reasons:

The Seahawks boasted an all-time defense last season, but that unit is about to be ravaged in free agency. It’s easy to see how Sam Darnold goes from game-manager to the guy tasked with winning more than a handful of games this upcoming season. Without Kenneth Walker in the backfield and without Klint Kubiak in his ear, can he do it?

The Rams, meanwhile, are rolling the dice on the structural integrity of NFL MVP Matt Stafford. Their entire operation rides on the throwing arm of a man who literally spent all of training camp hibernating inside a converted Airstream trailer branded as an “Ammortal Chamber.” If that aluminum tube loses power (or it’s a bunch of hokey pseudoscience), the Rams’ season goes down with it.

The Missing Middle Class

The Niners, of course, have questions of their own. So many questions. Up and down the depth chart, on both sides of the ball, the roster looks like it took a shotgun blast of attrition.

The good news? The 49ers have the capital to answer every single one of those questions in the next few weeks. They have the salary cap space (and they can create even more). They have the cash.

The real question is: Do they have the will?

Last season, the Niners’ front office essentially treated free agency like a highly contagious disease. They completely sat out the early waves, emerging only to sign a second tight end and a fourth receiver to contracts of any consequence. They made a conscious decision to eschew the “middle class” of an NFL roster — the solid, foundational veterans available on the open market.

That philosophy burned them in the long run. Even with a sparkling 12-5 regular season, a roster that is top-heavy eventually buckles when the foundation is built on cheap, unproven depth.

A Shopping List the Length of a CVS Receipt

The front office has the funds right now to provide definitive answers at an exhausting list of positions:

• Left Guard
• X-Receiver
• Tight End
• Backup Running Back
• Defensive Tackle & Defensive End
• Weak-Side Linebacker
• Oh, and also: Cornerback, Safety, and Kicker.

There are more than enough quality players hitting the open market who aren’t demanding top-of-the-market money but can provide immediate solidity at these spots. (And frankly, with their cap space, there is absolutely zero reason the Niners can’t get in at the top of the market for a blue-chip talent, too.)

The Draft is a Trap

If the master plan is to try to fill all these glaring gaps in the upcoming NFL Draft, we might as well charge the front office with football malpractice while writing off the 2026 campaign.

This is not a great draft class. Sure, there is value to be mined in non-premium positions, but relying on rookies to plug a half-dozen holes — in an effort to build a championship roster — is preposterous.

And if the plan is to just cross their fingers and draft again in 2026, what exactly was the point of the “gap year” cost-cutting measures in 2025? You don’t save your money just to look at the bank balance; you save it to buy something nice.

Now might not be the time to blindly shove all the chips to the center of the table and go “all-in.” But it is absolutely the time to be active, judicious, and deft.

The 49ers have a clear, paved path back into the top-tier of the NFC.

Will they actually put the car in drive and take it?