49ers running back situation in 2020 is more complicated than it seems

The San Francisco 49ers won’t list running back as one of their offseason needs in 2020, but the position is far from certain heading into the new year.

It’s pretty safe to say the San Francisco 49ers owned one of the most potent ground attacks in the league in 2019.

With 2,305 rush yards in the regular season, the Niners ranked second in the league behind the Baltimore Ravens, who had one of the most prolific rushing quarterbacks in the NFL, Lamar Jackson. A relatively immobile 49ers quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, essentially meant head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad relied heavily on his crop of running backs.

As such, one would think this is going to be a team strength heading into 2020 and won’t be viewed as an offseason need.

But the Niners situation at the position is far less certain than it would appear on the surface.

San Francisco’s leading rusher in 2019, Raheem Mostert, wasn’t supposed to hold that accolade during the year. He was supposed to be a special teams ace first, then supplementing what was going to be a deep and talented running back room.

At the end of the year, however, Mostert outpaced fellow running backs Matt Breida, Tevin Coleman and Jeff Wilson Jr. to the tune of a team-high 772 yards on the ground:

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/20/2020.

Absent from the list is running back Jerick McKinnon, whose 2018 ACL tear after the preseason ended up carrying its recovery weight over into 2019. After joining the 49ers on a lucrative free-agent deal in 2018, McKinnon has yet to take a regular-season snap in San Francisco.

McKinnon is one player the cap-pressed Niners may look to cut as a cap casualty this offseason, freeing up a would-be $4.55 million in much-needed money with $4 million in dead cap.

From a strictly financial standpoint, however, it makes more sense to part ways with Coleman, whose two-year deal signed in 2019 carries zero in guaranteed money this upcoming year, generating $4.869 million in cap space. Removing Coleman’s 105-yard effort in Week 8 against the Carolina Panthers, the 26 year old would have averaged just over 29 yards per game before the playoffs.

Shanahan had an affinity for Coleman, however, certainly stemming from their days together with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015 and 2016.

And Shanahan’s choice to stick with Coleman down the stretch ultimately cut into the number of carries Breida would have otherwise had.

Breida, the league’s fastest player in 2018 and 2019, had a combined 14 carries over San Francisco’s final four weeks of the regular season, and his lack of use was provocative, to say the least.

It’s unclear whether or not Breida is in Shanahan’s proverbial “dog house,” although the former undrafted free agent’s future with the 49ers now has some doubt associated with it.

At the same time, the respective situations with both McKinnon and Coleman have doubts, too.

Particularly when acknowledging Mostert was the team’s offensive star down the stretch and into the playoffs. Combined with Shanahan’s knack for finding otherwise unheralded talent at the position on a season-to-season basis, one might think the Niners look again at adding a running back between now and the start of training camp.

What this means for the rest of San Francisco’s runners is anyone’s guess, although it’s pretty obvious to acknowledge the situation at the position is far from set entering 2020.