There’s a particular writer at the Athletic who isn’t a believer in the 2024 San Francisco 49ers.

After naming the 49ers an offseason loser because they lost Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw, and hired a new defensive coordinator, Mike Jones of the Athletic listed San Francisco among the overrated teams heading into this NFL season.

Again, Jones focuses heavily on the losses on the defensive line:

Kyle Shanahan always gives them a chance, and Brock Purdy again has a talented supporting cast, although Brandon Aiyuk faces an uncertain future. Questions loom over the defense, however, with first-year coordinator Nick Sorensen directing a unit that lost Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw to free agency and must deal with the extended absence of Dre Greenlaw, who is recovering from Achilles surgery. The 49ers hope to put another heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat in the past and make another run at a ring, but doing so could prove more challenging than many expect.

It’s worth noting the 49ers replaced Armstead and Kinlaw with Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott. The fixation on Kinlaw is interesting given the defensive tackle’s general lack of effectiveness last season, but it wouldn’t be Earth-shattering if Elliott was a better rotational DT option for San Francisco this season. Whether Collins and others can replace Armstead in the aggregate remains to be seen and is certainly a sizable question mark for the 49ers to answer this year.

The Greenlaw absence is also a pretty significant blow. San Francisco signed former All-Pro De’Vondre Campbell to replace him. Second-year LBs Dee Winters and Jalen Graham could also be in the mix to start at Will LB, but none of those three are liable to be as effective as Greenlaw is.

Alas, calling the 49ers ‘overrated’ when they were a couple plays from winning the Super Bowl last year seems like a stretch based on the reasoning listed. After all, both Pro Football Focus and ESPN agree San Francisco has the best roster in the NFL.

A better argument would focus more heavily on the 49ers’ offensive line which they made only marginal moves to improve this offseason. There’s a case to be made they could conceivably be worse on the offensive front which would certainly have an impact on Purdy. Last year in his first full season as a starter Purdy had pretty good turnover luck which could wind up coming back to bite him and the 49ers this season.

There are also some questions in the secondary with uncertainty about who will start in nickel packages with cornerbacks Deommodore Lenoir and Charvarius Ward. Strong safety Talanoa Hufanga is coming back from an ACL tear which leaves a question mark about whether he’ll return to All-Pro form, and second-year safety Ji’Ayir Brown is an unproven commodity who figures to start alongside Hufanga.

Those are a lot of hurdles for Sorensen to clear in his first season as a defensive coordinator, which are much bigger reasons to have concerns than just the losses of Armstead and Kinlaw.

Injury luck was also, for the most part, on the 49ers’ side last season. They had the injuries to Hufanga in Week 11 and to Greenlaw during the Super Bowl, but outside of that they avoided major injuries and were relatively healthy going into the final game of the season. It wouldn’t be irrational if a person wanted to bet against injury luck for them again in 2024.

For now though on paper the 49ers figure to field one of the best teams in the NFL. Whether they can be just the second team since the turn of the century to return to the Super Bowl after losing it remains to be seen, but saying they’re ‘overrated’ for the reasons listed in the Athletic feels a tad off base.

More than 400 flights were delayed Tuesday afternoon at Denver International Airport as high winds blew across the area, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware.

There were 406 flights delayed and five canceled as of 5:20 p.m. as wind gusts at the airport hit 43 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., 70 flights were delayed and one was canceled, according to live flight tracking by FlightAware’s Misery Map.

United, Alaska Airlines, Southwest, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Key Lime Air, SkyWest, WestJet, American Airlines and Air Canada all had delayed or canceled flights.

Southwest had nearly half of the delayed flights, with 168 delays and one cancellation. United delayed 128 flights, according to FlightAware.

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SEATTLE – Seattle is at a breaking point as fearless street racers continue to scoff at the law. 

City Attorney Ann Davison is determined to change that by proposing hefty fines and making video, including social media posts, admissible as evidence. 

“We need to have our laws matter,” Davison said. “With our understaffing with Seattle Police, we need to be smart in how we address this.”

On Tuesday morning, Davison and leaders with the Seattle Police Department presented their proposal to members of the City Council Public Safety Commission. 

Seattle Police report that social media posts often inspire swarms of people to attend these dangerous events. What begins as death-defying donuts often escalates into deadly consequences: gunfire, hit-and-runs and even homicides.

One example of that blatant disregard is Miles Hudson, the man-behind-the-wheel of the infamous “Belltown Hellcat.” Despite a slew of criminal charges, thousands of dollars in fines and constant demands to stop, Hudson continues to post videos of him speeding and revving his souped up car on his Instagram. 

“I saw how people were laughing at officers because it felt like they couldn’t do anything,” remarked Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. “I’m assuming people come to Seattle to do it because we don’t have particular laws that prevent this from happening.”

Davison suggests imposing a $500 fine for cars caught spinning out. She also argues that video evidence, including dash or body camera footage and social media content, should be used to prosecute offenders.

During the discussion, Councilmember Rob Saka expressed strong support for following the city of Kent’s lead in criminalizing spectators too. Saka promised to reach out to Kent mayor Dana Ralph to learn more.

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