What became crystal clear in 2025 is that Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald lives rent-free in San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's head. While San Fran defeated Seattle in Week 1, the offense wasn't the reason. By the end of the season, the 49ers were nowhere near the quality Seattle was.
Maybe part of the reason was that the 49ers suffered a number of injuries this season. That would have an effect on any team. The issue was that the 49ers were healthy in Week 1, and won the game only after a last-minute turnover by the Seahawks, who were starting a new quarterback in the first game with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
Had the 49ers stayed healthy, and San Francisco players definitely kept making the excuse that had they had all their key players, their Divisional Round loss might have gone differently (hint: it wouldn't have), maybe they would have won another game or two in the regular season. They wouldn't have been as good as Seattle. But why did San Francisco have so many injuries?
49ers looking for any reason why they keep getting destroyed by the Seattle Seahawks
The team certainly doesn't know. In fact, according to ESPN's Nick Wagoner, the 49ers are so desperate to find the answer for why so many players got hurt that they are researching the social media theory that a nearby electrical substation might play a part.
To be fair, most scientists will say that a substation being near a team's stadium (in this case, Levi's Stadium, home to the 49ers) has literally nothing to do with players getting hurt. Had that been the case, then surely players of other teams would have been getting injured when they played in Santa Clara.
Wagoner writes that San Francisco general manager John Lynch said, "Because it deals with allegedly the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything. We've been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see does a study exist other than a guy sticking an apparatus underneath the fence and coming up with a number that I have no idea what that means? That's what we know exists. We've heard that debunked."
The San Francisco 49ers should also look into other, more realistic factors, and maybe they are. How good is their medical staff at truly disgnosing what the extent of injuries are. How is the team preparing for games? Is there too much stress on the players or not enough?
The bottom line, however, is that no matter who is healthy for the 49ers and who isn't, they might not have the talent to consistently beat the Seattle Seahawks. Moreover, the coach calling the offensive players for San Fran (Shanahan) simply seems overmatched by the coach calling the defensive plays for Seattle (Macdonald). That isn't changing any time soon.