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The 49ers Climb to No. 14 in NFL.com's Week 9 Power Rankings

Adding another pass rusher would make a huge difference.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; after the game San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) heads to the locker room against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; after the game San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) heads to the locker room against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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Last week, the 49ers fell all the way to 16th in NFL.com's power rankings after losing to the Chiefs.

This week, the 49ers have climbed back up to 14th after beating the terrible Cowboys.

"Sunday night's contest was a get-right game for the 49ers, even if it wasn't easy," writes NFL.com's Eric Edholm. "They didn't take control of the banged-up Cowboys until the third quarter and didn't actually put this one away until later than that. But no matter; San Francisco is 4-4 entering a Week 9 bye, with potential moves at the trade deadline and the possible returns of Christian McCaffrey and Dre Greenlaw to look forward to. Nick Bosa had a big outing, and Sam Okuayinonu has come on nicely as a rusher. Still, if the Niners are going to add pieces, may I kindly suggest some defensive line help? It feels like they need one more impact player up front. I might have said wide receiver should be addressed, too, in the wake of Brandon Aiyuk's season-ending injury, but Ricky Pearsall Jr. put together a strong effort Sunday and might be one to watch down the stretch. The NFC West is tightly bunched, with Seattle and Arizona also sitting at 4-4 and the Rams at 3-4, so I expect the Niners to be working the phones. Even if we set aside the possible new faces, though, San Francisco remains the best option to claim the division crown, slow start be damned."

Edholm's analysis is right on. The 49ers' biggest weakness right now is their defense, particularly their defensive line. Nick Bosa and Sam Okuayinonu are making an impact but no one else is. Adding another pass rusher would make a huge difference.

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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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