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49ers Sign RB Brian Hill to Practice Squad

The 49ers are so thin at running back, Hill might just play this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Grant Cohn|
49ers Sign RB Brian Hill to Practice Squad
49ers Sign RB Brian Hill to Practice Squad

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have a desperate need for healthy running backs.

So they signed former Atlanta Falcons running back Brian Hill to their practice squad on Wednesday. And the 49ers are so thin at the position, Hill might just play this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

That's because starting running back Elijah Mitchell has a concussion and a knee injury and didn't practice Wednesday, plus backup running back Jeff Wilson Jr. reagravated his knee injury and was limited during Wednesday's practice, not to mention third-string running running back Trey Sermon in on Injured Reserve with an ankle injury.

That leaves the 49ers with JaMycal Hasty and Hill, whom the 49ers could and probably will call up from the practice squad on Satuday. Those two potentially would be their only healthy running backs.

Hill, 26, was the Falcons' fifth-round draft pick in 2017. He has appeared in 45 games, and even though he has started only three in his career, he ran the ball 100 times in 2020 and averaged 4.7 yards per carry. Which means he was a quality No. 2 running back last season.

This offseason, Hill signed with the Titans, but suffered an undisclosed injury during training camp and they released him. Then the Browns signed him to their practice squad, and eventually promoted him to their active roster before releasing him on Nov. 30.

If Hill had anything left, the Titans and Browns probably wouldn't have gotten rid of him, so temper you expectations. 

Still, the 49ers need anything Hill can provide this Sunday. They're that desperate.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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