Even with a loss as significant as four-time All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner, there’s no world where 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan would openly declare that the team is now playing a lost season. Football writers, however, had no issue doing so in the wake of San Francisco’s 30-19 loss in Tampa Bay on Sunday.
The fact that the Niners lost their Week 6 matchup felt secondary to the unfortunate reality that Warner suffered a season-ending injury when he fractured and dislocated his ankle in the first quarter of Sunday’s game. The aftermath of this cross-country defeat has been littered with takes that read and sound like post-mortems for a Niners season that’s not even halfway over.
In the NBC Sports Bay Area postgame show, veteran reporter Matt Maiocco stated, “This just changes the entire complexion of the season for the 49ers. I think there was hope that the 49ers could string together some wins and make a really nice run without Bosa — they were going to have to do some stuff at the trading deadline maybe to get there — but, man. … This is just a really discouraging — it’s a heartbreaking loss for the 49ers because of everything involved with it.”
Analyst Rod Brooks then immediately followed up with, “And just from a mental standpoint, how do they not sort of bottom out as a team? … How does this team not allow itself to wallow in its injury situation, particularly when it comes to Warner?”
This general perspective was pretty consistent from media member to media member. The Athletic’s Vic Tafur wrote, “It’s too easy and too cute to say that when Warner was carted off the field seven minutes into the game, the 49ers’ postseason chances went with him. But that doesn’t mean it’s incorrect.”
Bay Area News Group’s Dieter Kurtenbach wrote that the injury is a “breaking point” in the Niners’ season, that any “optimism” about the team’s prospects this season “snapped alongside Fred Warner’s ankle,” and that believing the Niners can still make the postseason, which “seemed entirely reasonable just a day ago — now feels downright naive.”
NBC Sports Bay Area’s power rankings writer Taylor Wirth said of the 49ers on Sunday, “The football overlords are just playing a sick and cruel game with San Francisco this season. They won’t be able to overcome the losses of Nick Bosa AND Fred Warner. Just absolutely brutal.”
Then there was San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami, who compared Warner’s expected absence to that of Christian McCaffrey last season, adding, “And yes, that means the 49ers could be facing another Season from Hell, which seems unfair to occur in back-to-back years.”
The Niners will get a sense of what the rest of this season will look like next week against the Falcons in a prime-time Sunday night game. Perhaps the team could flip the narrative on its head. Still, without Warner, it’s far from a safe bet.
