TOP 10 Turnaround seasons

With the 49ers experiencing a turnaround season of the wrong kind this year through the middle of October, let’s take a look at the bright side. San Francisco is coming off one of the very best turnaround seasons in franchise history, as the 2019 49ers made one of the greatest single-season improvements in NFL history for a team that had such a poor record the season before. That earns last year’s team a high place on this list of the best turnaround seasons in 49ers history.

1 1981: In an era during which the NFL was ruled by enduring powerhouses, the upstart49ers changed all that with their quick rise and momentous, out-of-nowhere run to the franchise’s first Super Bowl championship. After taking over a 2-14 team and then repeating that record during his first season as head coach in 1979, Bill Walsh and his innovative West Coast Offense gained traction during a 6-10 finish in 1980, then improved seven games in the win column during a 13-3 finish in 1981 that earned San Francisco the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed. The rest, as they say, is history.

2 2019: Had the 49ers been finishers after holding a 10-point lead with seven minutes to play in Super Bowl LIV, this turnaround season could have topped this list — and perhaps the list of any team in NFL history. As it was, coach Kyle Shanahan’s gang became just the third team in league history to reach the Super Bowl after winning only four games the previous season. The 49ers transformed into a true juggernaut after their 4-12 finish of 2018, with their nine-win leap to a 13-3 season and No. 1 playoff seed paralleling San Francisco’s 1981 turnaround in several ways — except for that resounding thud at the end.