SF 49ers must move Tevin Coleman to keep JaMycal Hasty

With SF 49ers veteran Tevin Coleman on injured reserve, the team should take the opportunity to get younger at the position and keep JaMycal Hasty.

When the SF 49ers added veteran running back Tevin Coleman to the injured reserve list with a knee ailment in late September, it initially felt like another brick in the wall of IR’d and otherwise ailing Niners players.

But in the NFL, often injuries for one player are opportunities for another, and Coleman’s misfortune proved to be just that for undrafted free-agent rookie JaMycal Hasty, who took the former Atlanta Falcon’s spot on the Niners’ active roster.

The COVID season IR rules obviously mean something different for Coleman’s long-term availability than they would under a normal season, where being placed on the list meant a player’s season was all but over. With the three-week minimum rule in place for 2020, that means Coleman would be eligible to return after the Week 5 contest against the Miami Dolphins.

But SF 49ers’ head coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to suggest during the week leading up to the roster move Coleman would miss at least four weeks, possibly longer.

Coleman wasn’t exactly lighting the field on fire when he was playing, having amassed just 30 yards on 18 carries so far in 2020, a whopping 1.7 yards per carry, while catching just three balls on four targets for an additional 34 yards (8.5 YPC).

Granted the rest of the 49ers running game isn’t doing much either (running back Raheem Mostert is still the team’s second-leading rusher while missing the last two games), but Coleman has been one the least effective of the group (Jeff Wilson is equally dismal at 17 carries for 24 yards on the ground, but he’s added 67 yards through the air on four catches and has scored twice).

Why SF 49ers might be better off with JaMycal Hasty moving forward

Enter Hasty, who has been used pretty sparingly in two contests so far (according to Pro Football Focus, just six offensive snaps, all in Week 3), but his output has already amounted to roughly equal what Coleman has managed when considering the opportunities he’s been given.

Hasty had two carries for 9 yards along with one catch for an additional 9 yards during the Week 3 victory over the New York Giants, meaning he’s touched the ball on half of his offensive snaps, averaging 6 yards per touch.

It would be ridiculous to say that, with more touches, Hasty will be able to keep up those types of gaudy numbers, but even in limited action, he’s shown the type of agility, burst, and elusiveness with the ball in his hands Shanahan loves in his offense.

It should be taken with a grain of salt, but Hasty showed quick feet, good hands, and a decisiveness with the ball in his hands that seems to not come naturally to a player like Coleman, especially when trying to choose which direction to run while behind the line of scrimmage.

The rookie out of Baylor is also a few years younger than Coleman, who turned 27 years old in April, and has seen his statistics diminish after his career-best season in 2018, where he racked up 1,076 total yards on 199 total touches and nine touchdowns.

Injuries have gotten to him a bit since joining the SF 49ers last season, to be sure, but outside of an absolutely bonkers performance last season against the Carolina Panthers in Week 8, where he ran for 105 yards on just 11 carries with three touchdowns and added another touchdown reception, his production hasn’t been up to par.

And so, with all the unknowns surrounding the running back group for the SF 49ers and with no real certainty regarding how long Coleman will be out, it makes sense for the team to plan for the future and give Hasty a real run out over the next few games.

On top of all the injuries, the SF 49ers are in a tough spot, having already protected Hasty from being poached off the practice squad the maximum two times in the last two weeks, which means he either needs to be promoted for the long haul or snuck back through waivers and returned to the practice squad.

That last bit may explain why Hasty didn’t touch the ball very much in two games, but it doesn’t mean other NFL teams wouldn’t take him from the SF 49ers if given the chance. After protecting and elevating Hasty twice, the rest of the NFL knows the Niners value what the running back offers.

This means it might be time to either keep Coleman on IR through the rest of the season or try to seek out a trade partner since the running back’s nearly $5 million salary was guaranteed once he was on the roster on Week 1.

But a running back-needy team would need to first look past Coleman’s lack of production in 2020 and his injury history and be willing to pay the rest of his salary along with shelling out some sort of late-round draft compensation to the SF 49ers to make that work.

All said, the only true options to keep both Hasty and Coleman are to either maintain a sixth running back on the roster in lieu of an additional wide receiver now that wideouts like Deebo Samuel and Richie James are coming back from injuries. Or they can shelve Coleman on IR for the rest of the season and let him walk in the offseason.

In any case, the SF 49ers need to keep JaMycal Hasty around to see what they have in him, as he could be a low cost, high reward option for a unit that could use an injection of speed and elusiveness out of the backfield, things that Coleman just doesn’t provide anymore for this team.