49ers in Trouble if Elijah Mitchell Misses Matchup With Bengals

Bad news for the 49ers this week.

Elijah Mitchell was held out of practice Wednesday with a knee/concussion designation and is being ruled as day-to-day.

The knee injury is being labeled as an "irritation" after he underwent an MRI. So there is a bit of good news there that Mitchell will not miss time in the long-term. In the short-term, however, it is looking dark for the 49ers this upcoming week following the loss to the Seahawks.

The 49ers will be in trouble if Mitchell misses the matchup with the Bengals.

Mitchell is clearly the engine to the offense. He is the "1B" to Deebo Samuel's "1A" when it comes to being the driving force. Anytime one of these two players are missing, it forces the offense to lose their edge. Mitchell acts as the motor that gashes inside with outside explosion, while Samuel is the outside runner who can sneak in between the tackles if he is asked of it.

Without both of them together, each of them will find it more difficult to explode. Mitchell certainly didn't find any success against the Seahawks this past Sunday. Having Samuel missing in action certainly plays a part to it. And now that the 49ers are back down to .500, they are back in "must win" territory against the Bengals. Luckily for them, the matchup is not a 10 A.M. body clock game so they have some balance to start off.

Cincinnati is coming off a devastating loss themselves, so they could be feeling pressed to win this game like the 49ers. Regardless, should the 49ers be without Mitchell this Sunday, it will hurt the offense even with Samuel's return. Jeff Wilson Jr. is also dealing with his own ailments with his knee, so he is a toss up at this point as well. JaMycal Hasty will be the guy to answer the call should either running back miss the game.

“I think Hasty came real far," said Kyle Shanahan. "I think he got a lot better this year to where he was at last year. I thought he had a hell of a training camp. When [RB] Raheem [Mostert] went down, he kind of solidified himself as our third-down back. And then he got a, I believe it was a high ankle sprain, versus Philly, which set him back about a month.

"Came back in and was starting to ease back in there and do some pretty good things and then got another one, which has put him out the last month. So last week was his first practice back and I thought he did a good job and hopefully he'll continue to get healthier and not have any setbacks.”

Running back depth is hurting the 49ers yet again as it did early on in the season.

Hasty will be sufficient to keep the ground game going, but without Mitchell on Sunday, the odds of the 49ers putting up a strong fight on offense will be discouraging.

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