There wasn’t much to play for when the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals suited up Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
The 49ers were bad again in their fifth-consecutive loss, a 47-24 defeat in Arizona. While the contest didn’t matter to the 2024 campaign, a lot happened that could have an impact moving beyond this dreadful 49ers season.
Here are seven things that mattered for San Francisco in their season-finale:
Isaac Guerendo's injury
Guerendo went down with ankle and knee injuries on his second carry of the game, pushing Patrick Taylor into action for the majority of Sunday’s contest. The rookie fourth-round pick was taken off on a cart. The good news is he appears to have avoided a major injury. Head coach Kyle Shanahan after the game said the team believes Guerendo has an MCL sprain. Avoiding a major injury heading into a crucial offseason would be huge for him and his chances of carving out a larger role behind Christian McCaffrey next season.
Jauan Jennings' ejection
If there was any question about the 49ers’ compete level in Week 18, Jennings answered it in the second quarter when he buried two Cardinals defensive backs on run plays. The defensive backs initiated scuffles after both plays with the second one leading to Jennings’ ejection. He left himself 25 yards short of 1,000 for the season. Given the fact he was targeted 10 times in the first half and posted seven catches for 52 yards, it stands to reason he’d have gotten to the 1,000-yard mark had he not gotten kicked out.
Ricky Pearsall good again
Once he got his sea legs in the NFL and a real opportunity to perform, Pearsall showed flashes of why the 49ers made him the No. 31 overall pick in this year’s draft. After hanging up eight catches for 141 yards and a touchdown in Week 17, he posted six catches for 69 yards and a touchdown in the season finale. Pearsall again made some tough catches in traffic, showed value in the screen game, and made a good adjustment on a deep ball that was thrown short. The arrow is pointing up for the 49ers’ rookie WR.
Josh Dobbs' performance
If there was any question about whether Dobbs could be the 49ers’ QB2 long-term, he answered it with his showing in Sunday’s game. He completed 29-of-43 throws for 326 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Dobbs made some excellent throws, but he also dealt with sporadic accuracy during the loss. Perhaps a team wants to give him a shot as a starter in the offseason. If that role isn’t there for him, it would make sense for San Francisco to try and retain him as the backup to Purdy since he knows the system already and performed well enough to justify bringing him back if he wants to return to San Francisco.
Not-so safety
The 49ers may have a problem at safety. It looks like rookie Malik Mustapha can play, but the starting spot alongside him is a question mark. Talanoa Hufanga, a free agent this offseason, badly overran WR Greg Dortch on a Cardinals touchdown. Ji’Ayir Brown later whiffed a tackle on a late touchdown run for Arizona. San Francisco can’t have safeties who aren’t able to make open-field tackles because they’re being overaggressive.
Jake Moody misses ... again
Another missed field goal for the 2023 third-round pick might have been the final nail in the coffin for his tenure as the San Francisco 49ers’ kicker. He missed a 47-yard try to put an exclamation point on a truly bad season where he made only 70.6 percent of his kicks. That low of a percentage on at least 34 kicks has only happened four times since 2000. The last kicker to do it was 49ers kicker David Akers in 2012. The 49ers at the very least need to have a kicker competition in the offseason.
Draft pick secured
The games Sunday morning meant the 49ers would pick No. 13 overall in the 2025 draft if they won, or No. 11 if they lost. They’ll go into the draft with the No. 11 selection, which was the best possible pick they could’ve ended up with. Given their vast list of needs, that spot gives them a chance to grab a high-end player, but they can also try a trade back to accumulate some assets. It’s certainly preferable to picking two spots lower.