3 players 49ers could trade before 2020 season begins
By Peter Panacy
No. 2: 49ers Running Back Tevin Coleman
Trading Matt Breida helped free up some of the logjam at running back entering training camp, yet that was offset by the hopeful healthy return of fellow tailback Jerick McKinnon, who missed the last two seasons recovering from a 2018 ACL tear, as well as the undrafted free-agent additions of Salvon Ahmed and JaMycal Hasty.
Those three join other running backs Tevin Coleman, Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson in what’s turning into an awfully crowded tailback room this offseason.
Kyle Shanahan will let the players determine their own roles, which is fine. But there are likely to be some good names cut. And if a player like Ahmed or Hasty turns out to be too good to leave off the 53-man roster, someone else will have to go.
Coleman, despite Shanahan’s affinity for him, wouldn’t be too hard to move. Doing so would free up over $4.8 million in cap space with zero in dead money, allowing one of the other runners to assume the spot on the depth chart while saving San Francisco a significant amount of cash to use elsewhere.
And as far as Coleman’s dual-threat, pass-catching role on offense, it’s something the Niners tabbed for McKinnon when they inked him back in 2018.
If McKinnon flashes in camp enough, Coleman becomes the excess commodity here.
It’s unlikely another team would be willing to dish out anything more than a sixth- or seventh-round draft pick for Coleman’s services. But the benefit would be the 49ers clearing cap space and the positional logjam.