Super Bowl? The 49ers? This season?
In 2012, when Justin Smith had spent nine of his first 11 seasons on non-playoff teams, the former 49ers defensive tackle acknowledged the NFL’s rite of August.
[...] they will face the NFL’s toughest schedule, based on last year’s records, and they will navigate the gantlet with either Blaine Gabbert or Colin Kaepernick manning the most important position.
Is the goal to win the Super Bowl, and is that realistic?
When posed those questions in the first days of training camp, players mostly stuck to the script, but they did acknowledge they are part of a work in progress.
Left tackle Joe Staley, 31, the team’s longest-tenured member, said he’s eager to win a title before he leaves the league.
The parity-filled NFL routinely has teams that vault from punching bags to the playoffs.
Last year, two NFC teams, Washington and Minnesota, won their division after sporting a combined 11-21 record in 2014.
[...] as general manager Trent Baalke noted Sunday, the 49ers recently pulled off a similar feat.
Like 2011, which was Jim Harbaugh’s debut season, the 49ers have hired a well-respected, offensive-minded head coach in Chip Kelly who has a strong track record developing quarterbacks.
In 2011, the turnaround was made possible thanks to contributions from a host of free-agent signings that included cornerback Carlos Rogers, safety Donte Whitner and center Jonathan Goodwin.
Five years later, the 49ers’ inaction in the offseason smacks of a team that’s taking a long-term view to turning things around.
Sunday, Baalke said some of the surplus is earmarked for players from the 2014 draft class who can be signed to contract extensions after the season.
“When this team was good, in terms of the record, when we were competing for three NFC championship games in a row, if you looked at that team, there were a lot of guys that were homegrown,” Baalke said.
The majority of those players are unproven, but the 49ers are hoping they’ll develop and form a nucleus of another Super Bowl contender — eventually.