San Francisco 49ers fans should know all too well what it means to be a perennial playoff contender, only to see it all fall apart in one swift offseason.
Yes, 2015 was a disaster for Niners fans everywhere. In a few short months, the 49ers went from a Super Bowl favorite to laughingstock.
And it took years for them to recover.
That’s the parity of the NFL, unfortunately. Elite teams can fall apart for a number of reasons. There’s the salary cap and ever-growing player salaries. Coaching changes, age, internal dysfunction and a slew of other causes can turn a 10-win franchise into a cellar dwellar.