49ers depth chart: 3 players who see reduced role in 2021

No. 1: 49ers Running Back Raheem Mostert

The battle for San Francisco’s starting running back position isn’t necessarily important in of itself. Kyle Shanahan has historically gone with the hot hand and has rarely shied away from using a rotation.

If anything, the rusher with the most carries on any given game isn’t automatically the starter.

All that said, it wouldn’t be shocking if 29-year-old veteran running back Raheem Mostert winds up seeing something of a reduced role in 2021.

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Last year, missing eight games with varying injuries, Mostert wasn’t able to replicate the same kind of success he enjoyed as a primary 49ers home-run threat back in 2019 and during the 2020 postseason.

Even with a clean slate of health this year, Mostert is inevitably going to lose touches to a running back the Niners selected in Round 3 of this year’s draft, Ohio State‘s Trey Sermon, who looks the part of a true bell-cow rusher.

Sermon already got in a lot of first-team work during OTAs when Mostert was dealing with a minor knee injury. And it’s possible Shanahan winds up featuring the rookie more in 2021, while attempting to keep Mostert fresh for a late-season playoff push.

Either way, and especially with Mostert a free agent in 2022, San Francisco has far more long-term interests in developing and featuring Sermon, not Mostert.