Saints face former NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers in Week 2

Andrew Lang

The New Orleans Saints host the San Francisco 49ers in the Caesars Superdome in Week 2 at noon Sept. 14 with the broadcast on FOX. While San Francisco leads the series 49-27-2 in the regular season, New Orleans has captured six of the last 10 contests.

Let's take a deeper look at the Saints'Week 2opponent, the San Francisco 49ers:

2025 NFL WEEK 2: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS vs. SAN FRANCISCO 49ers

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Meet Your Saints Opponent: San Francisco 49ers

Coach:Kyle Shanahan

Quarterback:Brock Purdy

2024 record:6-11, fourth in NFC West

Most recent regular season matchup:Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 - 49ers 13-0

49ers-Saints series record:49ers lead 50-27-2 (including one postseason game)

San Francisco 49ers 2024 season recap:

The 49ers completed a 2024 campaign racked with injuries to key players. Despite missing those players, they were still in the hunt for the division through the first half of the campaign going 4-4 through Week 8 trailing only the Arizona Cardinals for first place in the NFC West due to a head-to-head tiebreaker. Coming out of their bye in Week 10, they secured a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to move them to 5-4, but from there the wheels would fall off as they would lose seven of their final eight games to finish the season 6-11, fourth in the NFC West, missing the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.

Deep Dive: San Francisco 49ers roster review

1. Return of Christian McCaffery

The 49ers will be hoping for another healthy season from McCaffery. McCaffrey was limited to only four games in 2024 due to multiple injuries, rushing 50 times for 202 yards and adding 15 receptions for 146 yards. The last full season McCaffrey had( 2023), he led the NFL with 1,459 yards rushing, 2,023 yards from scrimmage and 23 touchdowns. McCaffrey said he feels great heading into 2025.

"This offseason, I spent a lot of time kind of building back a base, starting from scratch,"McCaffrey said. "So a lot of it was rehab, and I wanted to put myself in a position where I didn't miss a day of OTAs and I could practice and play football again and be healthy and not miss a day. And I did that and now we can kind of kick back up the training again."

2. Bryce Huff reunites with Robert Saleh

The 49ers completed a trade for Eagles defensive end Bryce Huff coming off a 13 tackle, 2.5 sack season in 12 games with the Super Bowl champions. The 49ers will look for him to regain the form he had when he last played under defensive coordinator Robert Saleh with the Jets in 2023 where he racked up 10.0 sacks. Saleh said Huff brings "speed off the edge" to the defense

"I thought he was very productive, obviously with the Jets,"Saleh said. "He wins at such a high rate. A lot of times we look at pass rushers, we look at sacks, and sacks are important. They end drives, and it's what ultimately gets these guys paid. But his disruption rate and getting the quarterback off the spot and the way he can do it now. He is a second effort pass rusher, but he wins so quickly so often that coordinators have to account for his presence on the field."

Huff led the league in pressure rate in the 2022 and 2023 season,according to Next Gen Stats.

3. Defensive line refresh

Huff will not be the only new face in the defensive trenches for the 49ers as the team drafted three defensive linemen in the first four rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. Starting with Mykel Williams out of Georgia in the first round, 11th overall, and continued with Alfred Collins out of Texas in the second, 43rd overall, and C.J. West out of Indiana in the fourth, 113th overall.