San Francisco 49ers: Breaking Down Depth Chart at Running Back

The San Francisco 49ers drafted just one running back in the recent NFL Draft, selecting Florida’s Kelvin Taylor. Then, to the surprise of just about everyone, Jarryd Hayne retired to pursue his Olympic rugby dream. However, there is still depth at the position. Let’s take a closer look at the players who will be making up the backfield in 2016.

The San Francisco 49ers, under general manager Trent Baalke, have had a strong desire to run the football. This worked out pretty well from 2011-2014 (2011: eighth, 2012: fourth, 2013: third, 2014: fourth). But in 2015, starting back Carlos Hyde, who had started the season off with a bang, injured his foot and was lost for the rest of the campaign.

From this point on, the position became a quasi-merry-go-round, with mixed-to-limited success. The team tried various options in Reggie Bush (who went down with a season-ending knee injury), Shaun Draughn and Kendall Gaskins.

Also in the mix were rookie Mike Davis and Jarryd Hayne, who spent most of the season on the practice squad but was brought in very late in the year. Management decided to bring in free agent DuJuan Harris, who played in two games (and started one) and rushed for 140 yards, at a very respectable clip of 5.2 yards per carry. He also was effective in catching the ball (nine catches for 97 yards).

Despite the nice play of Harris, the offense really missed Hyde. The running attack stuttered to a 21st league ranking at a mere 96.5 rush yards per game. Before his injury, Hyde alone was averaging 67.1 yards per game.

The other major problem for the rushing offense was the porous play of the 49ers offensive line, which failed to open running lanes or maintain blocks for long enough periods of time. This didn’t give the back in question much time or room to make his cut/move.

The 49ers are attempting to build this season from in towards out. It will start up front on both sides of the ball. With the addition of noted run mauler Joshua Garnett, and a new and improved attitude from the rest of the O-line, the running game should rebound in 2016.

A better blocking line will hopefully open up the running “splash” plays, and start gouging some defenses. In 2015, this wasn’t good enough, as Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle shows:

If the 49ers really believe in “we’re running the football,” then the big plays need to start happening in 2016, whoever the back is. We all know that a strong running attack opens up the passing game.

So who should be on the running back depth chart this season?

Carlos Hyde

Hyde is the undisputed best back on the team. The running attack is much better with him on the field and firing. Before his foot injury, he ranked 19th out of 69 qualified running backs with a grade of plus-78.8 (from a zero to 100 scale), per Pro Football Focus.

His only real weakness is pass blocking (he ranked a plus-54.5 on the same scale). He needs to work on this part of his game during this offseason. Every block counts in today’s NFL, and the best backs in the league can block. Hyde is a top-10 back but he needs to improve here to become a top-five player.

If we can get the 2014 Hyde back (from the above video), the running attack is 500 times better.

DuJuan Harris

There have been a few projected 53-man rosters for this upcoming year and, to some surprise, Harris has not been on these lists. Harris is the best catching back the team has. This makes him a vital cog in a Chip Kelly offense.

Yes, he didn’t play much (98 total snaps). But his play overall was much better than Davis and Gaskins (who incidentally is a free agent currently) and he ranked higher than Draughn in running, receiving and pass blocking, per Pro Football Focus (all the below grades are based on a zero to 100 scale):

• Harris: Overall: plus-77.7; Run: plus-74.1; Receiving: plus-81.6; Pass Block: plus-67.2
• Draughn: Overall: plus-59.5; Run: plus-55.8; Receiving: plus-80.7; Pass Block: plus-61.6

Draughn did play in 272 snaps, but Harris outranked him in all the key categories above. It can be argued that there isn’t much difference between these guys (there isn’t). In fact, they could both argue themselves each deserves to be Hyde’s primary backup.

It will likely will come down to who performs better in the OTAs and training camp. The one sure thing is both players will be on the final roster.

Shaun Draughn

His statistics have been shown above, so they don’t need to be rehashed. Draughn is an excellent player. He is a workhorse back who excels between the tackles. Though he doesn’t have the pure power of Hyde, he makes for a nice complement to him and brings five full years of NFL experience.

And at age 28, he is far from over-the-hill material. If, horrifyingly, Hyde were to go down again, Draughn will be there to try and minimize the damage.

Depth players

Fullback Bruce Miller hasn’t been mentioned yet, as he has been barred from running back meetings and seems destined to be a tight end in the Kelly offense. Kelly typically doesn’t use a fullback in his inside-zone scheme, so this move is not a shock.

The question now is how many running backs will the 49ers carry on their final roster. They normally carry four, but with the injury to Hyde, and the seemingly looking position of not bringing back current free agents Bush and Gaskins, perhaps they will extend it to five?

Sixth-round pick Taylor will make the squad. He is powerful runner in the Hyde-mold, with excellent vision and finding a crease. Most importantly, in 509 total carries at Florida, he fumbled the ball zero times. Very impressive.

Bryan Knowles of Ninernoise.com had both Harris and Draughn “on the bubble” depending on how many backs the team carries into 2016. They both should make the roster, as they are clearly the best catching backs on the squad. Kelly would be foolish to not incorporate them in the passing game. Running back sweeps and screens can be very effective plays if run correctly.

Players likely to be cut

There won’t be any running backs “cut” out of the players currently on the 90 man roster. The final four will likely be Hyde, Harris, Draughn and Taylor. If it goes to five, then add in Davis.

It is true that Davis is just into his second season, and he missed several games in 2015 due to a broken hand (he played in a mere 128 snaps). But, according to PFF, he was the worst-ranked back on the team based on the previously mentioned categories.

It is not the time to give up on him. If the team decides to go with four backs, then put him on the practice squad to keep improving his game and to be ready for a call-up should the dreaded injury bug appear again.

The team could also scour the waiver wire throughout the off-season to improve the depth and competition at the position.

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The one factor we can all agree on — the 49ers need to get back to their A-plus running game. The desire is there from Baalke to Kelly, and the team is leaning back to operating from the trenches in its players.

There is little doubt that a fully functioning, healthy 49ers running game will go a long way into destroying the 14.9-points-per-game stigma ingrained into our heads from 2015.

Next: San Francisco 49ers: 10 Best & Worst Case Scenarios for the 2016 Season

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com, Sports-Reference.com and 49ers.com unless otherwise indicated.