👀 2024 San Francisco 49ers Running Back Depth Chart: Who's In & Who's Out?

Intro [Music] how we doing out there today 49ers faithful Drew cerr 49ers sports St today is May 1st 2024 I wanted to in today's video talk a little bit about the five backs that will start behind uh Christian mcaffry on the depth chart see which ones are more most likely to make it see which ones might be in and out and see how they'll respectively fit on the roster let's dive in all right so Elijah Mitchell I'm going to start this off with the three veterans that are currently on the roster and I will finish it up with the rookies uh obviously the rookies and the new shiny toys are are the funnest part of everything like that but I do want to take a look at what the ners have with Elijah uh JP Mason and Patrick Taylor first so I'm just going to start with uh Elijah Mitchell um I think that the biggest issue with Elijah is he his injury concerns it kind of seems like if the Wind Blows the wrong direction uh he's showing up on the injury list pretty regularly um and that and that kind of makes for a bad insurance policy um you know if if CMC goes down or anything happens to him it kind of feels like that uh would be a pretty big issue and um you know CMC went down in one of the playoff games and Elijah was available he did he was able to come in and it was and he came in and he pounded in at the goal line so you know you have to give him credit credit when he's healthy he is a he is a good player so uh get into the stats uh his you know the year that he started 10 games was his rookie year in 2021 um he started 10 games he had 207 attempts he had 963 yards so you know had he played a full season he would have been a thousand yard rusher five touchdowns he had a 4.7 average pretty good there uh 19 receptions he catches the ball pretty well uh pretty good out of the back field 19 catches on 20 targets he had 137 yards 7.2 average there and he also had a receiving touchdown so you know I do like Elijah Mitchell when he's healthy as I'm sure the Niners feel the same way and maybe a decent decent amount of uh Niners fans also feel good about Elijah Mitchell when he's healthy but you know the health is a big issue I don't know if the ners are going to look at that has a big liability because your best availab best ability is your availability and so you know Elijah just cannot for for the life of them stay healthy it kind of feels like he's made of glass but you know he plays really really hard um so I think sometimes he overexerts himself and that will cause injuries so anyway I think that you know with Elijah Mitchell my prediction that is that he will be there just because he is the most um out of out of all the backs on the on the team he's the most known he's the most uh you can when he's healthy you can trust him so that I think that uh you know that that's bodess well for the Niners all right JP Mason moving on to JP Mason um you know his rookie year he he was quickly becoming one of my favorites and it kind of seems like every time he steps on the field I get excited because there's you know potential of a big jolting run or he's going to run somebody over he kind of reminds me of baby be beast mode um but he barely sees the field and and to me like if if you don't see the field you don't get your Ops you're probably not going to you know get better at playing football in the National Football League so that leads me to question why isn't he playing um you know I had a conversation the other day um in a live with with CG ruthless and you know one of the things that came up is that he's not very good at uh pass blocking or pass protection so you know in Kyle's system you have to be good at protecting the quarterback in pass protection if you miss any kind of blocks or you're not holding up your end or assignment and in that um you're not going to get blank time and so that that makes a whole lot of sense I didn't know if he was like fumbling in practice if he was you know just coughing it up and and Kyle just wasn't willing to take the risk um but his his yards and attempt is off the charts good I mean for his career Granite small sample size uh he has F A 5.6 average that's crazy in the NFL um so kind of just leads me to believe that maybe he might be the most Expendable on the roster especially after they drafted two running backs um kind of just reading the tea leaves like if Kyle believed in him why are we bringing on a drafted running back back and then a really good undrafted running back which we'll get to here in a minute but um you know which teams um could potentially come for for JP Mason and offer a later round pick um maybe somebody like the bills maybe somebody like the Bengals maybe somebody in the AFC um that doesn't really require I mean most teams do require their running backs to pass protect so he's no matter where he goes he's going to have to get better at that um but just his as his running ability solely like he's a really good running back I think you know if he was a featured back I think he'd be a thousand yard back so anyway um this will be a close battle to watch with the next guy uh that that I'm going to talk about here in a sec um I I think that you know JP Mason and Patrick Taylor are sort of in the same mold they both catch out of out of the back field really well so um yeah next on the list Patrick Taylor Jr is Patrick Taylor Jr uh he was a free agent from the Packers and he is here on a onee contract just barely over a million dollars so you know that's not you know any kind of sign that they want this guy longterm um it's a very minimalistic contract for a veteran he's 26 years old so I think that they're bringing him on to push JP Mason maybe that can light a fire under him to uh get him to be uh extremely sound or a lot better and pass protection um Taylor was a uh undrafted free agent with uh that went to the Packers in 2020 um he wasn't the featured back when he was in college at Memphis so you know one of the questions is why didn't the Packers bring him back and I just I just feel like they simply phased them out with talent and I think there was just uh better guys that they had on the roster they just signed Josh Jacobs so there was really no need for them to bring him back you know they already have AJ Dylan which is Sim very similar back but a better version of Patrick Taylor um you know some of his weaknesses is that he just runs Too Tall he has tight hips um he has a tough time planning and going and outside Zone runs which is what the niners kind of like to do um in in certain cases they have been running it in between the tackles a lot more so maybe they plan on doing that a little bit more um but for as big as he is he's usually in second place when attempting to uh initiate contact and that's not good for a big guy you want a big guy to like run people over like JP Mason um you know I I feel like if if we were just to feature jpon as a goal line back and just only used him as that and maybe put him as a third or fourth option on game day um you know I think that that's perfect that is a perfect role for him you run him behind Trent Williams and that's better than the Eagles tush push last year that was pretty much automatic I think that JP Mason gets an end zone nine out of 10 times maybe 10 out of 10 times um he does all uh Patrick Taylor one thing he does really well though he has really good hands um he's almost like a receiver when it comes to catching the ball out of the back field um so yeah he has he has very good hands and um you know I I think that he might have the edge a little bit on Mason and pass protection I will need to dig deeper on that but I just you know some things that I've heard from friends of mine that are Packers fans say in the preseason he was he was holding his own in the pocket and kind of you know knocking guys back and holding his own there so I think that that's going to be the biggest competition I think in Camp that's going to be one of the battles that we're going to be watching is Mason versus Taylor and uh it should be fun to watch Isaac Gideon all right let's jump into the shiny new toys here the rookies that we just drafted um starting out with Isaac gendo drafted in the fourth round by the Niners um you know he was an athletic freak um in the draft and the and the combine all those types of things is prod day um and you know speed kills it it just does um at this level if you can run a 4-3 um you're you're cooking you're burning and he can do that he has that ability but one thing I was noticing when he uh you know some some of his game tape that speed did not truly exude itself or show itself on on game game tape um so he might be a fraction slower on game day um he does still have really good short area quickness though I he he can he looks like he's shooting out of a cannon from two yards to 10 yards so but for some reason when he hits that second level and after 10 yards he kind of just slows down a little bit and maybe that's just because he's reading the field um but at the NFL level uh everything's moving extremely quick you don't really have time to read everything um necessarily so so I think that uh you know it'll be interesting to see how he adapts to this so and but he did have a relative Athletic score of 9.90 out of 10 ranking him 20th out of 193 Running Backs from 1987 to 2024 that's a 99th percentile so he is an ath atic freak but athleticism doesn't always mean you're going to be a good NFL player it just enhances your chances and I think that you know Kyle tries to get his players in space and if you can get this guy in space he's you know going to at least get you eight to 10 yards um you know I just I'm not really sure if he has the home run ability and this is going to be something that we monitor here at the at the pro level um you know I don't know if he's the next Joe Williams uh it seems like Kyle Shanahan had trouble uh drafting running backs um you know or if he's the next R tee moster or Matt breida somebody who's just going to shoot out of a cannon and provide you with that home run threat so you know I think that uh watching um Isaac rendo in the preseason is going to be really fun for a lot of us or it won't be fun and he's just going to be a complete flop um but I I think that you know I think this time they finally got it right um Frank Gore is in the building scouting and checking guys out you know and I I don't know if he had any influence I'm sure that he talked to Kyle and and John and some of the scouts about his thoughts on this guy and had some feedback as well as as well as a running back coach so um yeah anyway I think that um Isaac Reno is going to be a fun rookie to watch so um and if you check out his measurables on his draft profile I mean they're they're phenomenal so he scored well and everything um he was drafted in the fourth round he wasn't like a day two or day you know he wasn't a day two pick or anything like that um he was in a second rounded he wasn't a third rounder he wasn't you know a top five on anybody's running back list maybe some people had him had him that high but you know we'll see how he translates to the next level Cody Sherer all right last but not least is Cody Sher um he's a rookie undrafted rookie free agent out of M Missouri um this guy is a very intriguing and very interesting Prospect a lot of people think that he should have gotten drafted at least in the sixth or seventh round um this guy finished eighth in Heisman voting he was a team captain at Missouri he has a high football IQ um you know some of the knocks and why why he wasn't drafted maybe um he does run with tight hips and he has short strides so you know um he and he's also not great at postcut Accel acceleration um if throws are not put right on him fortunately the Niners have rock party he throws dots um but if it's not put right on him like if there's an errant throw or anything like that he's likely not going to catch it so the ball almost has to be perfect um for him to be able to catch it out of the back field and run with it it it has to be laid up on him so he's not um you know like Patrick Taylor or JP Mason he's not going to have those receiver like hands um and even gendo has really good hands out of the back field that's one of his strengths they threw a ton of uh screens to Grand out of the back field um you know so I don't know I the receiving thing going to be interesting I think he does pass protect very well um he's short he's Stout he's 5'9 215 pounds um Frank Gore in comparison playing size was 59 216 so he's very very comparable to uh Frank Gore um in in that regard um he has really good Vision which is another thing that Frank Gore possessed very well which allowed him to become the third rusher of all time or third on the the all-time rushing list and uh you know so I think this guy has a lot of comps to Frank or this almost feels like a Frank Gore pick if if they were like Frank there's a bunch of undrafted free agents out there what are your thoughts who do you want I think Frank would go to this guy cuz he's a captain he sees the field well um he hits the holes really quickly um he has a really good Vision so there's a lot to like um there is the knocks that I set on him so we'll have to watch those in Camp um some of his measurables he he had a 5.87 comine grade so that's kind of just projected to be an average backup uh via nextg stats he had a 61 athleticism scorer so he's not a freak athlete he's not Isaac greno they're almost Polar Opposites on their athleticism ISM Spectrum but I do think that there are some things that Sher does better than genda um he had a 46140 a 155 yard or 1.55 split that's a really good so he has great short area quickness he has a really good burst um he has a 30 had a 33in vertical pretty average there um last year his college production um in 2023 he was a finalist for the do walk do Walker Award which is the best college run running back um he has a he holds the school record at missou um 1627 rushing 5.9 per he had 1,18 yards All Purpose uh 14 rushing touchdowns and he did start all 13 games so he's very durable he is the anti- Elijah Mitchell when it comes to durability and playing the guy shows up he doesn't get hurt he's smart with his body so those are things that I think the Niners are are trying to value and evaluate uh moving forward so you know with all that um I really like this pick um I really like the gendo pick too and these guys are really going to push Elijah Mitchell uh JP Mason and Patrick Taylor I think this these five running backs are going to be the most exciting to watch obviously everybody's excited about Ricky piol I did a post about him a couple days ago check it out um that's going to be the flashy piece that everybody's watching but I think this is going to be at least in my view and probably in my opinion and what I think is the most exciting is these five running backs that will start the season behind uh Christian mcaffry with no true pecking order I think that if you were to put a pecking order on it Elijah Mitchell would be the front runner um but you know there all things can all there's all sorts of possibilities that could happen uh moving forward in this off season and so my final thoughts um Final Thoughts on a very very premature depth chart are going to be chrisan mcaffry is the obvious starter I don't think anybody will contest me with that or uh you know I don't I don't think there's any debate about that at all um behind him I still think that Elijah Mitchell will remain the running back too because if he is healthy he is the best guy and probably the most trusted of this uh coaching staff he knows the offense he's uh inside and out so you don't have to you know it's not going to be up to hoping a rookie gets it and and doesn't miss an assignment or something in a big game so I think that Mitchell's going to hang on to that spot for this year at least um behind him I do think that Isaac gendo is going to emerge as somebody who's not only going to just be um you know behind Elijah Mitchell on the dep chart but see some actual playing time in games I think that there's some things you can do with him you can throw some screens to him you can um you know I I haven't seen really too many draw plays I I don't think that even exists in the NFL really anymore too much it it I do see some teams do it still but that would be something to consider with him um as well cuz you know he has that quick short area burst anyway uh moving on on the fourth fourth running back I think is going to be Cody shider to make it on the 53 I think there's too much to like about him I think he's a really smart guy I think he's going to pick up Kyle's offense extremely fast and so that leaves Patrick Taylor and JP Mason and I think that JP Mason's going to either get traded and dealt and hopefully for seven rounder for some team that really likes his film and uh you know hopefully he finds a place where he can play the next six to seven years and and be great unless it's a division rival unless it's you know somebody in the NFC that's that's going to is trying to climb the ladder and knock us off and you know I think that Patrick Taylor Jr is going to secure a a veteran practice squad spot anyway it's very premature give me your own thoughts on this in the comments and all right guys that's it for today's video thanks for hang in there uh please leave in the comments who you think will be the F the four running backs behind Christian mcaffrey to start week one as always thanks for watching please like And subscribe to help promote the channel if you want to see more content like this as well and uh I'll see you guys in the next one take care [Music]