The NFL opened 2026 in Australia, and the 49ers spent most of the night turning a rivalry game into a statement. San Francisco led the Rams 10-7 at halftime, outgained them 208 to 137 before the break, then stretched it to 24-7 in the fourth quarter on a Deebo Samuel Sr. touchdown catch. Around that score sat a milestone, an injury, a workload question and, far from the field, a federal sentence.
Start with Mike Evans, because the 49ers signed him this offseason to do exactly one thing and he did it in his debut. His first touchdown as a 49er was the 109th of his career, after 108 of them with Tampa Bay. That's the whole pitch for a 32-year-old receiver: not targets, not yards, just the end zone. Evans won't lead this team in catches and doesn't need to. He'll lead it in contested throws inside the 10, and that's a role the 49ers have been renting from rookies for years. My call is he finishes with double-digit touchdowns and a career-low catch total, and nobody in that building cares.
Now the part that should worry every Christian McCaffrey manager. Rookie Kaelon Black got a major workload in the first half, and McCaffrey is coming off a 2025 in which he led the entire league in touches with 413. Four hundred and thirteen. That's not a stat, that's a countdown. San Francisco clearly built its opener around reducing his early-down pounding, and Black is the reason they could. This isn't a benching and it isn't a timeshare yet, but Black is now a legitimate bench stash in every format, and McCaffrey's value tilts more toward quality touches than volume. If you drafted him top five expecting 2023 again, adjust.
Jake Tonges went down in the second quarter with a knee injury and was carted to the locker room. A cart in Week 1 is never a small thing, and the 49ers ask their tight ends to block in space and run the kind of routes that punish a bad wheel. Expect a roster move at the position before the next game. I'd bet on a veteran body signed off a practice squad rather than anything splashy, because this offense needs a functional third tight end more than a famous one.
The LeShon Johnson news is a different category entirely. The former NFL running back was sentenced to 60 months, five years, in federal prison after being convicted of six felonies related to dogfighting and running a large-scale operation in Oklahoma. There is no team to suspend, no fine to levy, no appeal to the commissioner. That's the uncomfortable truth about the NFL's conduct policy: it governs employment, not people, and it goes quiet the moment a career ends. Five years is the sentence the legal system decided was appropriate, and it's a heavier consequence than anything the league has ever handed down for an off-field act. Worth remembering the next time a suspension debate runs for three weeks.
So the takeaway from opening weekend is that the 49ers won the night and revealed their plan while doing it. Evans is a red-zone closer now. Black is real. McCaffrey is being managed whether he likes it or not, and the version of this team that wins in January is the version that keeps his touches under 350. The scoreboard in Australia was the least interesting thing about it.
