The 49ers' 2025 comes with plenty of quirks, and one of them could easily play right into their quest to win the NFC West this year.
There have been cases where head coach Kyle Shanahan's San Francisco 49ers have gotten off to a slow start.
In 2021, the Niners started off 3-5 before riding a second-half hot streak into the playoffs and all the way to the NFC Championship game. A year later, Shanahan and Co. were 3-4 before never losing a regular-season game again for the rest of the season.
Getting hot down the stretch is great, and it can help with momentum heading into the postseason.
But, in an ideal world, San Francisco would take advantage of one particular 2025 NFL schedule quirk to set a tone early.
And it involves sending a message to the rest of the NFC West.
49ers must dominate NFC West over first 5 weeks of schedule
The 49ers open up their 2025 regular-season docket with a road matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, which is the perfect opportunity to go 1-0.
Week 1 games can be weird (remember, the two-win 2016 Niners dominated their season opener that season), but a division rivalry to kick off the year is fuel enough to start off strong.
However, combing through the rest of San Francisco's schedule, it's hard not to notice how three of the first five games are against NFC West opponents:
Week 1 at Seattle Seahawks
Week 3 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Week 5 at Los Angeles Rams (Thursday Night Football)
Oh.
Talk about getting an early chance at a 3-0 division record, which could certainly benefit the 49ers as they aim to bounce from last place within the NFC West a season ago back up to first.
Speaking of 2024, the Niners went 1-5 within the division, and early losses to NFC West rivals set a negative tone early on, one from which San Francisco never truly recovered.
Now, the opportunity is there for Shanahan and Co. to proverbially right the ship and establish dominance over the rest of the division just after the first-quarter mark of the regular seasonn.
It'd be advisable for the 49ers to take advantage of this.
Read more from Niner Noise