I would say that it is possible we finish 2nd this year, but I don't think it is to the Niners.
I surmised the Cards might sneak up.
SF has issues with the OL in Boone holding out, and Iupati coming off of injury. The other thing is that our DL plays their OL really well anyways. Gore is another year older, and his backups right now are unproven. Say that again: unproven backups that get to play AZ, SEA and STL all twice if Gore goes down.
The biggest question mark for SF is at QB. Yes, they've gotten him the weapons, but Kap still hasn't proven he can do more than: Read 1, Read 2, GO ! in his progressions. Hell, RGIII still hasn't proven he can do more than that. It's an issue that running QBs have to overcome. Look at the games before Crabtree came back: you had either Boldin or Davis having big games, sometimes both. Crabs comes back, and Davis disappears. If Davis has big game, Boldin disappears. Kaepernick hasn't proven he can do anything with Stevie Johnson yet. If he can, yes they might win the division. If he can't....they're going to end up in 3rd place.
They also have noted quesion marks in their secondary, LB, and DL depth.
The other biggest factor is AZ. AZ is coming up hard, but they still need to beat SF, which they haven't done for over 3 years. IF AZ can beat SF, even once, it's going to hurt SF's chances for the division. Also, SF lost to STL once and tied them once two years ago, and this year's STL squad looks even better.
The winner of this division likely goes 4-2 in division and holds serve outside of it. 3-3 very well could win this division. If that's the case, I give the nod to the Hawks, as we're the most likely team to go 3-3 with our HFA. If any team gets swept by another team, it's likely over for them in division. It's going to be that tough.