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The 49ers are a 3.5-Point Favorite to Beat the Jets on Monday Night

The last time the 49ers lost the Super Bowl, they opened the following season with a 24-20 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

Grant Cohn

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) walks out onto the field with the offense to face the Buffalo Bills in the home opener at MetLife Stadium on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, in East Rutherford.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) walks out onto the field with the offense to face the Buffalo Bills in the home opener at MetLife Stadium on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, in East Rutherford. / Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The 49ers home opener against the Jets originally was supposed to be an easy win, because Aaron Rodgers is coming off a torn Achilles and the 49ers are coming off a Super Bowl appearance.

But Brandon Aiyuk missed the entire offseason and Trent Williams is still holding out for more money. And now the 49ers' home opener looks like it will be a close game.

"One of the biggest swings in the spread on the Week 1 slate comes in this matchup between the Jets and 49ers," writes Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports. "San Francisco initially opened at a 6-point favorite, but that has since fallen all the way to 3.5. It's worth noting that the Super Bowl losers have gone 4-19 ATS in their following Week 1 openers since 2000, so that trend -- coupled with the return of Aaron Rodgers to the Jets -- could be what is driving people to back New York with the points."

It's also worth noting that the last time the 49ers lost the Super Bowl, they opened the following season with a 24-20 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals. So the Super Bowl hangover is real. And the 49ers' hangover seems even worse this time around.

Until Williams returns to the team, it's hard to pick the 49ers to beat the Jets. And even if Williams returns late this week, he still might not be ready to play Week 1. And even if he does play, he might not be himself.

This is why the line is moving the way it is.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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