The Final Grade For the 2021 49ers Running Backs
Jeff Wilson injured his knee during OTAs, Raheem Mostert injured his knee on his second carry of the season and missed the whole year, and the 49ers running backs flourished without them.
Go figure.
Wilson eventually returned midseason, but by then, he was afterthought. That's because rookie sixth round pick Elijah Mitchell immediately established himself as the workhorse No. 1 running back for the forseeable future. The 49ers routinely gave him more than 20 carries in games and he never fumbled.
Mitchell finished his rookie season with 11 games played, 207 carries, 963 rushing yards, 4.7 yards per carry and 6 touchdowns.
Compare those numbers to the ones Terrell Davis produced when he was a rookie in 1995: 14 games played, 237 carries, 1117 rushing yards, 4.7 yards per carry and 8 touchdowns.
Both Mitchell and Davis were sixth-round picks -- Mitchel was pick No. 194, Davis was pick No. 196. Both played for a Shanahan -- Davis played for Mike and Mitchell plays for Kyle. And both were hand-picked and developped by running backs coach Bobby Turner, who has a long track record of turning late-round picks into Pro Bowlers.
Davis is a Hall of Famer. We'll see how Mitchell's career unfolds.
But he currently isn't the best running back on the 49ers.
Deebo Samuel is.
Technically, Samuel is a wide receiver. But midseason, he started playing both positions, because he's an elite running back, too, apparently. Again, go figure. Samuel averaged a whopping 6.2 yards per carry and scored eight rushing touchdowns from an average of 16 yards out. He was a cheat code.
To be fair, both Samuel and Mitchell benefit greatly from the blocking of Kyle Juszczyk, the best fullback in the NFL.
But imagine how much better each of their numbers would be if they had a quarterback who forced opposing defenses to respect the pass.
FINAL GRADE: A-PLUS
