In 2012, when Justin Smith had spent nine of his first 11 seasons on non-playoff teams, the former 49ers defensive tackle acknowledged the NFL’s rite of August.

That is, every player, no matter how downtrodden his team, will insist the season goal is to win the Super Bowl. Smith confessed he’d often trotted out the line when he knew his team had zero chance to claim a title.

“I’ve said that before in the offseason, but then you’re like ...” Smith said, smiling and rolling his eyes.

This brings us to the 2016 San Francisco 49ers, a group whose chances of winning the Super Bowl appear to be somewhere between “no way” and “you’ve got to be kidding” (officially 100-to-1, according to Bovada.com).

The 49ers are coming off a 5-11 season in which they lost eight games by at least 14 points and their roster hasn’t been significantly upgraded: Their biggest free-agent signings were guard Zane Beadles and third-string quarterback Thad Lewis.

Now they will face the NFL’s toughest schedule, based on last year’s records, and they will navigate the gantlet with either Blaine Gabbert or Colin Kaepernick manning the most important position.

Given that, how about it, guys? Is the goal to win the Super Bowl, and is that realistic? When posed those questions in the first days of training camp, players mostly stuck to the script, but they did acknowledge they are part of a work in progress.

Wide receiver Torrey Smith, one of two 49ers to have won a Super Bowl, understands the work required.

The Super Bowl is “always the goal,” Smith said. “You aren’t going to tell me we aren’t going to win it. We’re not working hard to lose. Obviously, we’re a young team. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we’re the most prepared team in the league right now. I’d probably be lying to you. But I feel like we have talent. … We’re a long ways from that point, but that’s definitely the goal.”

Left tackle Joe Staley, 31, the team’s longest-tenured member, said he’s eager to win a title before he leaves the league. And he refuses to view 2016 as a let’s-try-to-be competitive season.

“Rebuilding years, that’s B.S. to older guys,” Staley said. “That’s B.S. to guys that give everything they have to the game of football. I’m never, ever looking for anything less than to hold the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the year. I think it’s realistic with the football team that we have, but we have a long, long way to go.”

Offered inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman: “That’s always the goal, I think, with all 32 teams. I think it’s realistic. You just put in the work.”

The parity-filled NFL routinely has teams that vault from punching bags to the playoffs. Last year, two NFC teams, Washington and Minnesota, won their division after sporting a combined 11-21 record in 2014.

In fact, as general manager Trent Baalke noted Sunday, the 49ers recently pulled off a similar feat. In 2011, they won the NFC West with a 13-3 record, a seven-win improvement from the previous season.

“I don’t think anybody comes into the National Football League with anything but (the Super Bowl) in their sights,” Baalke said. “Some are more realistic than others in terms of being able to accomplish that. I don’t ever put a ceiling on a team, right? In 2011, a lot of people wanted to put a ceiling on us, too, and we did pretty well.”

Like 2011, which was Jim Harbaugh’s debut season, the 49ers have hired a well-respected, offensive-minded head coach in Chip Kelly who has a strong track record developing quarterbacks.

A key difference, however, is that the roster looks largely the same this season. In 2011, the turnaround was made possible thanks to contributions from a host of free-agent signings that included cornerback Carlos Rogers, safety Donte Whitner and center Jonathan Goodwin.

Five years later, the 49ers’ inaction in the offseason smacks of a team that’s taking a long-term view to turning things around. The 49ers have an NFL-high $49.4 million in salary-cap space, and Baalke said the boatload of cash will be spent … eventually.

Sunday, Baalke said some of the surplus is earmarked for players from the 2014 draft class who can be signed to contract extensions after the season. That group could include cornerback Jimmie Ward, running back Carlos Hyde and outside linebacker Aaron Lynch.

Baalke, who has generally avoided making a splash in free agency, is hoping to follow the blueprint that led to a 36-11-1 record from 2011-13. Those teams included stars who were drafted and developed: Patrick Willis, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Bowman, Staley …

“When this team was good, in terms of the record, when we were competing for three NFC championship games in a row, if you looked at that team, there were a lot of guys that were homegrown,” Baalke said.

It’s worth noting that the 49ers still have 36 of their 44 draft picks since 2013, and those players account for 40 percent of their 90-man roster. The majority of those players are unproven, but the 49ers are hoping they’ll develop and form a nucleus of another Super Bowl contender — eventually.

“The money is going to get spent,” Baalke said. “If you look at the way we’ve tried to do things — we’re not just trying to keep the money. We want to win. But spending the most amount of money doesn’t always guarantee the opportunity to win. You can’t buy a championship.”

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch