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Maurice Jones-Drew Ranks 49ers RB Jordan Mason 24th Among NFL RBs

Mason is 25 and has carried the ball just 236 times in his career. And yet, former All Pro running back and current NFL Network analyst Maurice Jones-Drew ranks Mason as the 24th-best running back of 2024.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason (24) carries the ball against the Arizona Cardinals during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason (24) carries the ball against the Arizona Cardinals during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers probably will lose one of the top running backs in the NFL this offseason.

No, not Christian McCaffrey. I'm talking Jordan Mason.

McCaffrey is under contract through 2027 after signing an extension with the 49ers last year. Mason is an unrestricted free agent who will draw interest from other teams who see him as a potential starter with untapped potential.

Mason is 25 and has carried the ball just 236 times in his career. And yet, former All Pro running back and current NFL Network analyst Maurice Jones-Drew ranks Mason as the 24th-best running back of 2024.

"Mason's early success in place of an injured Christian McCaffrey was a pleasant surprise," writes Jones-Drew. "He posted three 100-yard rushing performances over the first four games of the campaign -- and then he suffered his own injury, which limited his playing time in the second half of the season. Even so, Mason proved to be starter material in this league."

Well put. Mason is one the hardest runners in the league. He would immediately upgrade the rushing attack of the Chiefs, the Commanders, the Cowboys, the Bengals, the Raiders, the Dolphins, the Chargers, the Bears, the Steelers and the Vikings, to name a few.

Mason also has upside as a receiver. He's not McCaffrey when it comes to running routes, but he does have good hand-eye coordination which makes him a threat on screen passes.

It will be interesting to see which savvy organization will sign Mason this offseason.

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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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