Elijah Mitchell’s knee injury has San Francisco 49ers facing all-too-familiar running back issue

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Since Kyle Shanahan took over as head coach in 2017, the San Francisco 49ers have had a unique main rusher in every of these 5 seasons.

After beginning working again Elijah Mitchell sprained the MCL in his proper knee in Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears, which is anticipated to maintain him out for about two months, there is a lifelike likelihood that streak will proceed.

Such is life in for the 49ers, the place little-known working backs emerge as focal factors practically each season. It is why the Niners have made it an organizational precedence so as to add working again depth each offseason both via free company, the draft or each.

“I believe we have gone via a minimum of 4 all through a 12 months and we’re already at that once more,” Shanahan stated. “And that is why you may by no means have too lots of them. Typically it appears like we’ve got so much, and really rapidly it now appears like you do not as a result of these numbers finish quick.”

The dangerous information for the Niners is that they misplaced their clear-cut No. 1 again in Mitchell, a promising younger participant who was off to a very good begin and poised to change into the primary 1,000-yard rusher in Shanahan’s San Francisco tenure.

The excellent news, if there’s such a factor, is that no staff within the league has proved higher at adapting to working again accidents. That is how the likes of Carlos Hyde, Matt Breida, Jeff Wilson Jr., Raheem Mostert and Mitchell — a second-round choose, three undrafted free brokers and a sixth-round choice, respectively — have emerged because the staff’s main rusher in every of the previous 5 seasons.

Since 2017, the Niners rank eleventh within the NFL in speeding yards and yards per carry whereas rating eighth in makes an attempt. Over the previous three seasons, they’re sixth in speeding yards and thirteenth in yards per carry. That manufacturing, regardless of the dearth of a constant main choice within the working recreation, buoys the Niners’ confidence that they will preserve working it properly sans Mitchell.

“We hope to have higher luck with that sooner or later, however hopefully we will maintain down the fort right here a little bit bit and when Elijah comes again, he is coming again to a greater staff and serving to us make a run,” Shanahan stated.

When and if Mitchell comes again, the Niners ought to have a significantly better concept of simply how deep this 12 months’s steady of working backs is. In August, the staff launched backs JaMycal Hasty and Trey Sermon, each of whom performed in 2021 and had been promptly claimed on waivers by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively.

Whereas neither Hasty nor Sermon had a lot success, they’d have introduced some expertise to a working again room that has solely two gamers — Wilson and veteran Marlon Mack, who was signed to the observe squad on Tuesday — with NFL carries.

That have is why Wilson will get the primary crack at changing Mitchell. Wilson appeared in 9 video games final season after recovering from a torn meniscus in a knee. When he did play, he did not look very similar to the participant who led the staff in speeding in 2020. One other 12 months faraway from that damage, Wilson seemed to be nearer to his former self in coaching camp, although he managed simply 22 yards on 9 carries after changing Mitchell at rain-soaked Soldier Area on Sunday.

“We have all the time been snug with Jeff, simply due to his expertise and what he has carried out right here,” Shanahan stated. “We all know what we will get.”

The Niners do not know what they are going to get from the 2 backs behind Wilson, nevertheless. Third-round choose Tyrion Davis-Worth and undrafted rookie Jordan Mason have but to play an everyday season NFL offensive snap however landed roster spots over Hasty and Sermon, a transparent signal that the Niners consider in what they may carry to the desk.

Davis-Worth and Mason are each larger, extra bodily backs than the speedy likes of Mostert and Breida. On Sunday, Mason was lively forward of Davis-Worth partly due to his contributions on particular groups. That does not essentially imply he will likely be forward of him with regards to speeding alternatives, however it’s the one information level to work from so far.

In accordance with Shanahan, the largest factor for each rookie backs is studying the way to do the little issues — blitz pickups, route working, even run blocking — that occur once they do not have the ball. Shanahan stated each gamers must “develop up quick” and the strain will likely be on as a result of they are going to be getting alternatives ahead of later.

“That is actually the hardest factor for a working again on this offense,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk stated. “The transition from school to the NFL, so far as simply carrying the ball, is admittedly not an enormous transition. And that is why you will see lots of profitable rookies within the NFL on the working again place. Nevertheless it’s that stuff when you do not have the ball … you get requested to do some issues that possibly I might be doing as a fullback.”

The 49ers additionally produce other choices to energise the run recreation. Each had been on show within the loss to the Bears, as quarterback Trey Lance and receiver Deebo Samuel had been the highest two in speeding yards. Lance’s speeding makes an attempt will likely be more durable to challenge as a result of some will occur exterior the construction of the play, however the Niners will not draw back from asking him to achieve yards together with his legs.

It was an damage to Mitchell (and different backs) that pushed Samuel into an expanded speeding function final season, and although Shanahan insisted that the working backs should nonetheless produce, Samuel’s use as a working again will stay a staple within the offense with Mitchell out. That is simply positive by Samuel, who stays snug as a “vast again.”

“It simply feels the identical,” Samuel stated. “I have been doing it for a very long time, so I do not see it totally different. As soon as I see a gap, I am gonna hit it and no matter occurs, occurs.”