Are the 49ers sleepers to make a run at the Super Bowl in 2026?

The San Francisco 49ers still have a couple of weeks before they bring their players and coaches back to their facilities for the start of training camp, but this quiet part of the offseason is a great opportunity to look around the league and assess where teams stand.San Francisco is set to enter camp with a better roster than they ended the season with, considering they had several key contributors out due to injury in the postseason.Now, as they head into 2026, Touchdown Wire's Stacey Mickles believes that the 49ers are sleepers to make a run at the Super Bowl.

Is that a fair descriptor for Kyle Shanahan's team this year?San Francisco finished their 2025 regular season with a 12-5 record, which was good enough for third place in the division and a wild-card spot in the postseason. Despite the aforementioned injuries to guys like Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and George Kittle (arguably three of their six most-important players), they still defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round.

However, one week later, they fell to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in an embarrassing 41-6 effort at Lumen Field.Over the last several months, the 49ers lost Bryce Huff, Dee Winters, Jauan Jennings, Kendrick Bourne, Kalia Davis, Jason Pinnock, Jordan Elliott, Spencer Burford and others. They brought in Mike Evans, Osa Odighizuwa, Christian Kirk, Jack Jones, Ashtyn Davis in free agency or trades and added some veterans who could make an impact as well.

While the roster is probably better, there are two big reasons why sleeper is a fair title for San Francisco.The first is the history. The 49ers have won five Super Bowls since they were founded in 1944, but the last one came 30 years ago in 1994, when they beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 at Joe Robbie Stadium.

Since then, the team has made the playoffs in 14 of the 30 seasons, making it to the conference championship eight times and the Super Bowl three times, but their sixth Lomb