It’s four days until 49ers training camp-week begins! We want to look at each opponent and provide a reason for and against the San Francisco 49ers beating them. We’ve included a poll for the community to vote on whether they expect a win or a loss. We’ll see what kind of prediction this provides at the end.
Week 1 @ Minnesota Vikings
Week 2 vs. Detroit Lions
Week 3 @ Kansas City Chiefs
Week 4 @ Los Angeles Chargers
Week 5 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Week 6 @ Green Bay Packers
Week 7 vs. Los Angeles Rams
Week 8 @ Arizona Cardinals
Week 9 vs. Oakland Raiders
Week 10 vs. New York Giants
Week 11 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 12 vs. Seattle Seahawks
The Denver Broncos are quite fascinating. Their entire season was marred by poor quarterback play which in turn also was a result of what looked like bad coaching. There’s not much you can do with Brock Osweiler and Trevor Siemian under center. And yet, the rest of the roster was pretty decent. Denver knew that and went and got Case Keenum as well as rehauling the coaching staff. The one consistent, even last year was Denver’s defense was absolutely solid. Even with the offense sputtering around, the defense managed to make hell for the opposing offenses—the Denver offense was just that bad.
Reason For: Broncos running game
Case Keenum can run and throw, but putting the game on his shoulders could be asking for a lot at this point. The Broncos let go of C.J. Anderson in the offseason and put things on the shoulders of Devontae Booker along with their newly drafted running backs, Royce Freeman and David Williams. Those three are not going to be able to take the slack off Keenum. Keenum has a talented wide receiver group, but not near the youth the Vikings have. So if the running game can’t go anywhere, and the 49ers secondary is as good as we hope, and Case Keenum again channels his inner Case Keenum like in the NFC Championship, the 49ers could make for a long day. The Broncos run game has potential, but they need a year. Those three are just not game changers at this point.
Reason Against: The Broncos defense. All of it.
Even with the trade of Aqib Talib, the Broncos still have a top-10, maybe even at top-five defense. Looking at it, I don’t see a glaring weakness on it. Sure there are positions I’d upgrade, but nothing on there is an achilles heel for it. If they can get in sync against the 49ers, they could make life an absolute chore for the offense, one they can’t recover from. If the defense can get a couple turnovers and keep Jimmy Garoppolo from shifting things into fourth gear, they could give us a low scoring game where the Broncos come out with a field goal.
If you can’t see the poll, click here.