2023 NFL Predictions: NFC West

KEVIN HANSON (@EDSFootball)
Updated: Thursday, September 7th

Before the start of the season, I will post my NFL division-by-division predictions for the 2023 NFL regular season and postseason.

Instead of projecting an outright winner and loser in all 272 regular-season games, I've assigned a win probability to each team in every game and totalled them up.

With that said, here are our early NFC West projections for each team including their win total.

1. San Francisco 49ers - Projected Wins: 10.84

The 49ers gave up a lot to get Trey Lance in 2021, but finding a starting quarterback with the last pick of the draft is anything but irrelevant. Bad jokes aside, Brock Purdy (elbow) appears healthy heading into the season and the 49ers have a talented offensive line and an elite group of pass catchers. On a roster with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey, efficiency is all that is really needed from the quarterback to get the ball in the hands of the team's playmakers.

The 49ers have lost defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans to the Texans, but the biggest concern for the 49ers defense going into the 2023 season was the status of Nick Bosa, who was entering the final year of his contract. The two sides agreed to a massive contract extension on Wednesday, which ends his holdout. Along with Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett, Bosa is one of the NFL's three best pass rushers and the reigning NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year after recording a league-high 18.5 sacks in 2022. Not only is Bosa one of the best defensive players in the league, but the 49ers have the league's best linebacker tandem with Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw.

Continue reading our 2023 NFL Predictions: NFC West

2023 Fantasy Football Projections: San Francisco 49ers

Our Fantasy Football Projections will be viewable by both position and team.

Below you will find our 2023 fantasy football projections for the San Francisco 49ers.

MORE: Fantasy football projections for more NFL teams

QUARTERBACKS

Player	Att.	Comp.	Yards	TD	INT	Rush	Yards	TD	Points
Brock Purdy	485	325	3710.3	24.74	12.13	56.8	127.8	1.28	243.57
Sam Darnold	39.3	24.2	288.9	1.79	1.1	11.4	41	0.23	22

Brock Purdy: Mr. Irrelevant is the term given to the final pick of each NFL draft, but Purdy, the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, was anything but irrelevant in his rookie season. From December through his final snap of the playoffs, Purdy completed 151-of-224 pass attempts (67.4%) for 1,877 yards (8.38 Y/A), 16 touchdowns (7.1%) and only three interceptions (1.3%). There appear to be no lingering concerns following his offseason UCL surgery.

Sam Darnold: Excluding a terrible performance (2.8 passer rating) in 2022's season finale with the Panthers, Darnold was playing really well before that last year. In fact, he threw for 1,100 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception with a 105.4 passer rating in his other five games started last season while adding 74 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Since Kyle Shanahan took over in 2017, the 49ers rank second in the NFL in passing yards per attempt (7.4), per Stathead.

MORE: Continue reading our 2023 Fantasy Football Projections: San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers: 2023 NFL Schedule

Below you will find the weekly NFL regular-season schedule for the San Francisco 49ers in 2023.

MORE: 2023 NFL Strength of Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Time (ET) / Tickets
Week 1	Sun., Sep. 10	at Pittsburgh Steelers	W 30-7
Week 2	Sun., Sep. 17	at Los Angeles Rams	W 30-23
Week 3	Thu., Sep. 21	vs. New York Giants	W 30-12
Week 4	Sun., Oct. 1	vs. Arizona Cardinals	4:25 PM / Tickets
Week 5	Sun., Oct. 8	vs. Dallas Cowboys	8:20 PM / Tickets
Week 6	Sun., Oct. 15	at Cleveland Browns	1:00 PM / Tickets
Week 7	Mon., Oct. 23	at Minnesota Vikings	8:15 PM / Tickets
Week 8	Sun., Oct. 29	vs. Cincinnati Bengals	4:25 PM / Tickets
Week 9		BYE
Week 10	Sun., Nov. 12	at Jacksonville Jaguars	1:00 PM / Tickets
Week 11	Sun., Nov. 19	vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers	4:05 PM / Tickets
Week 12	Thu., Nov. 23	at Seattle Seahawks	8:20 PM / Tickets
Week 13	Sun., Dec. 3	at Philadelphia Eagles	4:25 PM / Tickets
Week 14	Sun., Dec. 10	vs. Seattle Seahawks	4:05 PM / Tickets
Week 15	Sun., Dec. 17	at Arizona Cardinals	4:05 PM / Tickets
Week 16	Mon., Dec. 25	vs. Baltimore Ravens	8:15 PM / Tickets
Week 17	Sun., Dec. 31	at Washington Commanders	1:00 PM / Tickets
Week 18	Sun., Jan. 7	vs. Los Angeles Rams	TBD / Tickets

MORE: San Francisco 49ers historical W-L records - San Francisco 49ers historical head-to-head records

Fantasy Football Strength of Schedule (SOS)

How easy or difficult is the fantasy football schedule for San Francisco 49ers players?

Fantasy Football Strength of Schedule by position:

San Francisco 49ers Mock Draft Roundup 1.0

Throughout the year and leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft, we will update our San Francisco 49ers Mock Draft Roundup showing picks for the San Francisco 49ers from several prominent sites and draft analysts.

The following are picks in recent mock drafts for the San Francisco 49ers:

EDSFootball - Kevin Hanson (5/9)

29. Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa

DeJean has good size and speed with the versatility to play on the boundary or defend the slot. The Hawkeye had five interceptions, three of which he returned for scores, in 2022.

CBS Sports - Josh Edwards (5/8)

30. Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa

San Francisco finds another long-term contributor at cornerback.

ESPN - Todd McShay (5/4)

31. Cooper Beebe, IOL, Kansas State

The Niners don't have many holes but could probably use a refresh on the interior offensive line. And I think Beebe is clearly the best interior lineman in the country, though Ohio State's Donovan Jackson might also end up in the first-round mix. Beebe is a grinder with good mobility and a big 6-foot-4, 322-pound frame. He has allowed only two sacks, neither of which came in the past two seasons, over 35 career starts. In fact, he allowed only one pressure across 418 pass-block snaps last year.

The Athletic - Dane Brugler (5/2)

29. Jordan Morgan, OT, Arizona

The first round might be a tad lofty for Morgan, who is coming off a late-season injury, but he is a balanced athlete with a promising tool set. Arizona hasn't had an offensive player drafted in Round 1 since Trung Canidate in 2000.

MORE: Continue reading our 2024 San Francisco 49ers Mock Draft Roundup

San Francisco 49ers - 2023 Draft Results

The table below are all of the 2023 NFL Draft picks selected by the San Francisco 49ers.

Round	Overall	Player	Position	School
3	87	Ji'Ayir Brown	S	Penn State
3	99	Jake Moody	K	Michigan
3	101	Cameron Latu	TE	Alabama
5	155	Darrell Luter Jr.	CB	South Alabama
5	173	Robert Beal Jr.	EDGE	Georgia
6	216	Dee Winters	LB	TCU
7	247	Brayden Willis	TE	Oklahoma
7	253	Ronnie Bell	WR	Michigan
7	255	Jalen Graham	LB	Purdue

More: 2023 NFL Draft Results - San Francisco 49ers Draft History

2023 NFL Power Rankings: San Francisco 49ers

Throughout the 2023 NFL season, we will compile a consensus NFL Power Rankings that averages the rankings of all 32 NFL teams.

Below you will find a Week 3 roundup for the San Francisco 49ers in our consensus 2023 NFL Power Rankings.

ESPN -- Rank: 1

Player: WR Brandon Aiyuk
Current contract situation: Under contract through the 2024 season

The Niners picked up Aiyuk's fifth-year option in May. The only first-round pick the Niners have signed to a second contract in the Kyle Shanahan/John Lynch era (since 2017) is defensive end Nick Bosa, waiting until after his fourth season to do it. The Niners would like to make Aiyuk the second. The question is whether they can afford to keep both Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel long term. Much of that will depend on whether Aiyuk can build off last year's breakthrough season, in which he surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the first time and led the team in receptions (78) while finishing second in touchdowns (eight). If he can, the cost to retain him will only increase. -- Nick Wagoner

NFL.com -- Rank: 1

Beating the Rams was a gut-check win in a lot of ways, even if a few big missed connections could have made it a larger margin of victory. Some will hone in on the Brock Purdy overthrows, but he came through with the touchdown drive before halftime and delivered some big throws on the fourth-quarter TD march. I'm not worried about him. But the health of the secondary is getting a little scary. The Niners were paper-thin by game's end, but credit goes to Isaiah Oliver, who was thrust into a major role because of injuries, and Deommodore Lenoir, who left the game for a bit before making a pick late. Both came up huge. In lieu of style points, San Francisco won with resolve, keeping Kyle Shanahan's bunch at No. 1.

Continue reading San Francisco 49ers NFL Power Rankings Roundup

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