The 49ers returned from their 10-day Eastern road trip to begin the 2021 season with a 20 record and facing an alarming question they never expected to be answering so early in the year.
Who is going to play running back?
That already was an issue before San Francisco could even get out of the middle of September as the 49ers lost explosive lead back Raheem Mostert to a season-ending knee injury in Week 1 at Detroit, then saw each of their top three remaining backs go down to injury in a five-minute span the next week during a slugfest victory at Philadelphia.
The only healthy running back San Francisco had at the end of that game was fringe veteran Trenton Cannon, who has carried the football 12 times over the last three seasons for three different teams and was picked up off the free-agent scrap heap only after the 49ers lost Mostert.
A dire situation for the San Francisco backfield? Sure.
But fear not. The 49ers know how to find running backs and they know how to develop them. And they never stop looking for ways to do it and places to find them. Who knows? Maybe they can even turn Cannon into something special under the tutelage of San Francisco coaches once they fit him into Kyle Shanahan’s outside-zone scheme.
The 49ers have done it before with just about everybody else they’ve inserted since Shanahan and his staff arrived to run the operation in 2017. Just as Shanahan has done it before with just about every running back he’s inserted into his system since he first began running an NFL offense as a coordinator with the Houston Texans in 2008.
Denne historien er fra October 2021-utgaven av Niner Report.
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Denne historien er fra October 2021-utgaven av Niner Report.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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EIGHT IS ENOUGH
Set 49ers lineup still has several new starters
Calling all cornerbacks
Loss of Verrett exposes 49ers’ thin depth at CB
Always finding their way to run
49ers system accomplished at developing homegrown talent
ANOTHER COMEBACK?
Resilient veteran Verrett to miss rest of season
TOP 10 Rookie running backs
THE BACK LIST
STOCK UP STOCK DOWN
DEOMMODORE LENOIR | AMBRY THOMAS
Will Mostert run for 49ers again?
Raheem Mostert was primed this year to be the centerpiece of one of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses, featured as the lead performer in San Francisco’s grinding rushing attack while making his climb among the league’s top running backs.
THE WONDER OF WARNER
49ers make All-Pro star highest-paid LB in NFL
Making the right choice at QB
In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
TOP 10 Linebacker seasons
Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.
