The San Francisco 49ers saw their Super Bowl hopes collapse after a humiliating 41-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round. Falling behind on the very first play, the 49ers never found their footing against the NFC’s top-seeded Seahawks, and the game quickly slipped out of reach. 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy struggled to get anything going, finishing 15-of-27 for 140 yards with one interception and one lost fumble. Still, when asked about the 49ers’ chances of making the Super Bowl next season, Purdy struck an optimistic tone. 

“I really do believe that we have the right guys, man,” Brock Purdy said in the post-game presser. “Obviously, it didn’t end the way that we wanted it to. But I really think that with some guys getting healthy and what we stand for and how we always bounce back with our backs against the wall, really, all season, guys going down, but we always found a way. So, I think once we 100% feel good about ourselves and learn, then we’ll be just fine.” 

Brock Purdy isn’t letting one ugly loss erase what the 49ers believe they’re building. And what fuels Purdy’s confidence is his locker room. Despite a season full of adversities, the 49ers stuck together and fought through constant injuries to win 13 games and reach the playoffs. Many teams would have collapsed under such a difficult season, but the Niners didn’t.

The injury list in San Francisco alone tells the story. The 49ers saw linebacker Fred Warner and defensive star Nick Bosa go down with a season-ending knee injury earlier in the season. Even Brock Purdy himself missed six games in the 2025 season after sustaining a turf toe injury. Given all that, it’s fair to ask: how did the 49ers even make it this far into the postseason?

Still, San Francisco’s front office clearly has work to do in the offseason. The 49ers will need to patch holes and upgrade the roster if they want to put themselves in a real Super Bowl position next season. 49ers’ head coach Kyle Shanahan, however, wasn’t quite ready to jump into future projections after Saturday night’s disaster. He did, though, point out one silver lining for the Niners.

“I always will think about what’s possible and stuff, but it’s definitely the last thing I’ve thought about,” Kyle Shanahan said in the post-game presser. “I haven’t thought about that at all recently and haven’t thought about it at all up to this moment. But, you know, a lot of guys got to play this year that haven’t played in the past, and that should help us for the future. But we’ll come in Monday, and we’ll deal with all this stuff, put this game to bed, and deal with all the players, and then we’ll very quickly start on our offseason plan and how to build this team the best way possible to give us a shot next year.”

There’s no sugarcoating it – getting blown out by a division rival in the playoffs will sting for the Niners. But Shanahan also knows most of the core from the 2025 team is coming back, and several young players in the 49ers’ roster who were forced into action this season might pay dividends down the road. This experience could fuel real improvement in 2026 and beyond for the Niners.

That’s why Brock Purdy’s belief in a 2027 Super Bowl run doesn’t sound as crazy as it might at first glance, even after a lopsided loss. When injuries pile up the way they did for San Francisco, it becomes nearly impossible to run a clean offense or defense. That reality became evident on Saturday night as the 49ers’ second- and third-string skill players simply couldn’t separate to score.

After the game opened with a shocking 95-yard kick return touchdown by Seattle’s specialist Rashid Shaheed, the 49ers’ offense tried to respond with two field goals in the second quarter. But that was as close as they’d get. The 49ers failed to score in the final two quarters, and the offense completely ran out of answers. One interception on the 49ers summed up the entire night filled with struggles, and after the game, Purdy owned the mistake.

Brock Purdy takes the blame for the 49ers’ struggles in the loss to Seattle 

With nearly six minutes remaining in the third quarter of the game and the 49ers trailing 24-6, Brock Purdy tried to force a throw on first-and-ten. He targeted Luke Farrell, the 49ers’ third tight end, who had entered the game after TE Jake Tonges left with an injury. But Farrell never really attacked the ball, and Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV came away with an interception. While some might’ve blamed Farrell for the mistake, Purdy didn’t.

“We’re off the schedule, and I’m at that point where I’m just trying to figure out which way Luke is gonna go,” Brock Purdy said in the post-game presser. “Honestly, I shouldn’t have thrown it. So, that’s not on him. He got put in a tough situation… It’s on me.”

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The 49ers’ QB had time in the pocket, but no one was open. Purdy tried to extend the play, but eventually had to throw the ball somewhere, and that decision backfired. While most of Purdy’s success in the game came from throwing to TEs Jake Tonges or Christian McCaffrey, both of them were dealing with injuries by early in the third quarter.

As such, with 49ers wide receivers unable to separate, the Seahawks’ defense pressured Purdy on 19 of his 33 dropbacks – an astonishing 58%. Under that kind of pressure, something was bound to go wrong, and it did when Purdy threw that interception.

Ultimately, Brock Purdy’s mistake was part of much bigger struggles for the 49ers that resulted in the team’s earliest playoff exit since 2002. But considering everything that the 49ers have endured, even reaching the Divisional Round says something about this team’s resilience. So, Purdy and Co. will take that as a positive while heading into the offseason.