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The 49ers Climb to No. 13 in NFL.com's Week 10 Power Rankings

The experts are becoming cautiously optimistic about the 49ers.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa (97) celebrates as he leaves the field after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa (97) celebrates as he leaves the field after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
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The experts are becoming cautiously optimistic about the 49ers.

They didn't even play this week and yet they climbed one spot to no. 13 in NFL.com's Week 10 power rankings.

"We’re into November, which is traditionally when Kyle Shanahan’s teams make their move," writes NFL.com's Eric Edholm. "True, past 49ers clubs have been a little more successful on the whole than this one, which started 3-4, but the expected return of Christian McCaffrey lifts their profile, even with the resurgent Rams and Cardinals giving the Niners some serious competition in the NFC West. They can do what they normally do this time of year with incremental improvements on special teams and defense, along with the expected bump with CMC back in the offensive backfield. This stretch run also will loom large for Brock Purdy, who has been hot and cold in the first half of the season. It says here that Purdy will finish strong in the back stretch, and that will be partly contractually motivated, as he will be eligible to sign a potentially massive deal this offseason. I think his play will warrant one in a few months."

Edholm's analysis is always terrific and his optimism in this case is warranted. But his prediction that Purdy will raise his game to earn a massive contract extension is interesting because you could argue his struggles this season have been "contractually motivated." He's holding the ball longer than ever this season. And when he waits longer than 2.5 seconds to release the ball, he has thrown 6 of his 7 interceptions.

Purdy needs to dink and dunk down the stretch for the 49ers to make their customary second-half run.

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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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