Trent Williams is far too wise and much too experienced to make any overdramatic conclusions from an eight-game sample size — even when the 49ers are sitting at 7-1, when their NFC West rivals don’t look so hot, and when this franchise seems somewhat overdue for a confetti bombardment in February.
“Ain’t even halfway there yet,” Williams said with a smile.
Very true. The 49ers first have to lock up a playoff berth — preferably the No. 1 slot in the NFC, to guarantee a bye and home-field advantage through the conference playoffs — then survive and advance through the final gun at the Super Bowl.
And we know that the last step has proven to be troublesome in the Kyle Shanahan/John Lynch era, particularly when Patrick Mahomes has the ball in the final minutes.
Williams, who was part of the 2023 team that lost Super Bowl 58 in overtime to the Chiefs, is certainly savvy enough to know that any season could be suddenly derailed at any time, however good things look in November or even January.
“Honestly, I’m the wrong person to ask because I’ve seen every horror story in the NFL,” Williams said. “I’ve seen this play out too many ways, where … I can’t just say this is the season. A lot of things have to go into it.
“We got to stay healthy. I mean, we still got some really, really good teams that’s on our side of the bracket. It’s a lot that has to go our way. We just got to continue to make sure we do the things daily that when things do go our way, we’re prepared to take advantage of it.”
And yet.
There are undeniably good vibes flowing through the 49ers these days. They’ve finished off some good victories. There are good players strolling around everywhere in the locker room. And two more were added via trade in the last two weeks — DeForest Buckner and Keenan Allen.
Oh yes, Williams and the other veterans 49ers leaders were absolutely following the deadline news minute-by-minute earlier this week.
“I was paying very close attention,” Williams said. “It was kind of like you’re tracking a package that you really want. You keep checking, keep checking. I kept refreshing Instagram and checking on the 49ers pages just to see, because I knew something was coming down the pipeline. Just didn’t know who.”
It was Allen on deadline day earlier this week, a 34-year-old six-time Pro Bowler whose physical and canny play at wide receiver does seem to match the 49ers’ ethos. A week earlier, it was the same for Buckner, of course, who was such a huge part of creating this culture in his first stint with the 49ers and has fit right back in six years later like he never left.
This is a locker room loaded with leaders and good, young players to lead.
“All our young, super talented guys that we have — pretty much every position room has a North Star, somebody that they can look to and actually follow and literally learn how to do it the way we do it,” Williams said.
“And I think it’s a beautiful structure to the locker room. Having a guy like Keenan, just a guy that knows how to win.”
Williams doesn’t have to tout the 49ers’ process and mindset, but that’s why it’s so illuminating when he does. Nobody on the roster has more perspective and less concern about how he’s perceived because Williams is a made man times 1,000 in that locker room and on any NFL field.
And he’s also playing just as well at 38 as he has in 12 previous Pro Bowl seasons, tied with Anthony Muñoz, Jonathan Ogden, and William Roaf (all Hall of Famers, of course) for most among tackles. A 13th would put Williams all alone, first among the unequaled.
Which is why I kept honing down the big-picture question about the 2026 49ers to: Is this the team’s best chance at winning the Super Bowl in this era?
“I would say that this is one of the more talented teams that I’ve been on and I think one of the more composed teams too,” Williams said. “I think the veteran leadership definitely plays a huge part in that.
“And it does seem more and more like a team that Kyle loves — from top to bottom what he prefers. So I would hope [this is a championship season]but it’s too early to tell.”
There’s definitely a special kind of mood with all these future Hall of Famers all dying to win the last game of the season (among the main rotation guys, only Mike Evans and Demarcus Robinson have previously won titles).
Special bonus: Three major figures have returned to the 49ers this season after less-than-buoyant journeys with other teams.
I noted to Williams that Buckner, Deebo Samuel, and Dre Greenlaw all look especially comfortable, happy, and perhaps even relieved to be back in Santa Clara alongside Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk and other veteran stars.
The main reason this is such a happy place for veterans, Williams said, is that Shanahan doesn’t play politics in the locker room or during games, which keeps things authentic and is especially notable for players who’ve perhaps experienced something different elsewhere.
“You have a guy like Kyle who rarely ever cares about the politics and rarely ever cares about what people say outside the building — he runs it truly free of any influences,” Williams said.
“So whatever you see Kyle doing is because that’s what he thinks is best. If he takes a player out of the lineup and adds another player in the lineup, we know he’s doing that because he wants the best for the team, not because of the front office saying, ‘Hey, we want to see this player get reps.’ Or ‘Hey, we drafted this player here, we need we need to see him play.’
“Our decisions come based off football. … So I think when you leave, you realize, hey, when you walk in this building it’s all about football. … As a football player, that’s where you want to be.”
Here are some other highlights from our conversation …
• Obviously, so much of this is built around one of the younger starters on the team — 26-year-old Brock Purdy, who moved into first place on the all-time NFL passer rating list recently and is currently third among quarterbacks who’ve thrown 100 or more passes this season. He’s also first in QBR.
Is Purdy even better this season than he’s been in the last few seasons?
“Generally, when you got guys who really love the game and really put their all into it, they usually continue to get better, continue to get better,” Williams said. “I think it’s no different from him. He’s way better than he was last year and I expect him to be on the same trajectory and to be better next year than he is this year.
“It’s just confidence, and a lot of that is a team paying you [$53 million] a year, and you understand not only are they telling me that they love me and they got my back, they’ve shown me that they love me and they have my back. So now when I go out there, I don’t have to look over my shoulder. I’m not in the huddle on eggshells saying I got to show that I’m more than the last pick of the draft. …
“So now I think that the confidence is there and it’s allowing him to keep everything football. ‘Yeah, I can throw this layered ball that a lot of quarterbacks are scared to throw. And guess what? If it gets picked, I’m gonna come out and do it again because they trust me.’ And that’s the only way we win is by throwing these balls on time, throwing to these spots, and trusting it.’ …
“[It’s about] the ability to go back out just like last week [after an interception]the next play, he threw a ball, and as I’m blocking, I hear Maxx [Crosby] say, ‘Oh, that’s a pick,’ and the ball floats right over the head [of a defender]another layered ball the drive after he just threw a pick trying to throw a layered ball.”
• Williams has always been bullish on right tackle Colton McKivitz, the former fifth-round pick who doesn’t always get praise and certainly not from 49ers fans in his previous four seasons as a starter after replacing Mike McGlinchey.
This season, though, McKivitz has been one of the better two-way right tackles in the league and has gotten some national praise for it.
“He’s playing amazing,” Williams said. “Very hard to find a right tackle playing better than him right now in the run and the pass. Same [as with] Brock, the confidence — he went from being late-round draft pick to being cut, practice squad, the whole nine [yards]and playing behind a first-round pick.
“And not only did they move him in, and where people may say, ‘Oh, they just saved money,’ but then they pay him [a three-year, $45 million deal through 2028]. And now it’s, like, ‘They really believe in me.’ And you’re a dangerous person when you know that people have faith in you and that they really believe in you and believe in your talents.”
• I asked Williams if he’s disappointed with the way long-time teammate Brandon Aiyuk’s relationship with the 49ers has dissolved.
“I’m just a friend,” Williams said. “I would just say I just feel a little sad for him that he’s not able to go out there every Sunday and show the world the talent that God blessed him with; and it sucks to know that it all could have been avoided. … As a friend, sometimes you gotta step back and just let them figure it out because sometimes you get to pushing and pulling too hard on them to do what you think is the right thing. Then that that creates more issues.”
This is me: And many times that will get somebody to do the exact opposite thing, anyway.
“Exactly,” Williams said. “I’ve been around long enough to know that certain guys just gotta make their own way. … Sometimes, you know, a bought lesson is better than a taught lesson.
“As we can see, now he’s getting his business in order and I think he’s understanding that the window isn’t open forever, and this game goes on without you. You know, I remember in ‘19 [when Williams missed the season with Washington]as bad as I felt, just feeling like it should be overwhelming support. I had cancer, da-da-da. [But] you click on every Sunday, every Thursday, every Monday, the games are going and the stands are full. And regardless of how good you think you are, regardless of how much you think they love you, or how much you think the fans love you, the fans will continue to buy seats in that stadium with or without you there.”
• Williams is a feature of many other players’ “welcome to the NFL” moment.
Here’s my favorite, starring Jared Verse:
I asked Williams a bit of the reverse of this: Have you had a “I’m still good” moment anytime recently?
“It’s crazy, but I get it in camp,” Williams said. “When I go into camp and I’ve been training by myself virtually the whole offseason, I don’t know if I got slower, I don’t know if I got fast. I don’t know. I don’t know until I get around everybody else.
“When I get into camp, that’s when I’m judging myself to know, like, all right, did I take a step back? Or am I still Trent, the person I want to be? And when I get into camp, and I just see myself moving through the drills, and see me going against the competition and whatever, it takes a couple of days for me to realize, like, OK, I’m back and I’m still as good as I need to be. And now let’s focus on how to be better.
“So it don’t really come in the game. I find my confidence in practice during the week. The only way I can go out there and do it confidently in the game is if I mastered it on the practice field.”
And whenever he wants the highest level NFL clearance, there’s always Bosa over there.
“Having him is like a f—ing ace in the hole because we’re able to articulate to each other and we both have a deep understanding for the game, so we’re able to help each other out,” Williams said. “And he’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ve seen this.’ I tell him what I’ve seen, and, you know, iron sharpens iron.”
Source: sfstandard.com
