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Kyle Shanahan Says Jordan Mason's Time Will Come

The time is now.
Grant Cohn|
Kyle Shanahan Says Jordan Mason's Time Will Come
Kyle Shanahan Says Jordan Mason's Time Will Come

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have two good running backs, but one of them hardly plays.

Jordan Mason is averaging an astounding 6.6 yards per carry for the 49ers this season. And yet this past Thursday night, the 49ers gave him just four carries while they gave 26 to Christian McCaffrey.

McCaffrey is an excellent running back, but he's not built to carry the ball 26 times per game. He's not built like Derrick Henry -- Mason is. Mason needs to carry the ball more frequently down the stretch, particularly to keep McCaffrey fresh for the playoffs.

I asked Kyle Shanahan on a conference call about Mason. Here's exchange we had:

ME: Christian McCaffrey said he calls Jordan Mason "Mariano Rivera," like he's the closer. Is there something he needs to do to earn more carries earlier in the game or is Christian just too good to take off the field?

SHANAHAN: “No, we can give him more carries earlier in the game. We’ve mixed him in for a few in the weeks before. It was just tough in this game with how much we like Christian in the pass game also and just the threat that he is on the field, but no, his time will come. We usually use everybody.” 

MY INTERPRETATION: Shanahan was desperate to win the division this past Thursday, so he overused McCaffrey, his security blanket. Shanahan is afraid to use Mason because he's a rookie and Shanahan doesn't trust rookies unless he has to. But now that the 49ers have clinched a playoff berth, Shanahan can feature Mason more frequently because they have nothing to lose. Plus he's terrific.

I expect Mason's time to come now.

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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