49ers Near 4th Super Bowl-Era Offense With 5 Starters Aged 30-Plus
Updated
Updated · Niners Nation · Jul 31
49ers Near 4th Super Bowl-Era Offense With 5 Starters Aged 30-Plus
3 articles · Updated · Niners Nation · Jul 31
Summary
Five 30-plus non-quarterback skill starters could line up for San Francisco if Deebo Samuel or another veteran wins the Z-receiver job, a combination seen only three times in the Super Bowl era.
Josh Dubow's tally includes Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk and one of Samuel, Christian Kirk or Demarcus Robinson, making the offense five to six years older than with 25-year-old Ricky Pearsall.
That age shift is not expected to be a one-game anomaly: the 49ers are counting on those veterans as regular starters rather than emergency fill-ins.
Samuel still offers speed and special-teams value despite the tradeoff in youth, hitting 19.23 mph on a kickoff last September and averaging 30.1 yards on 15 returns, fourth-best in the NFL.