The 49ers have another running back situation at hand. Raheem Mostert’s season ended before it began, and Elijah Mitchell is out this week with a concussion and knee injury.
Mitchell has played through and suffered a stunning number of injuries this year, beginning with an adductor strain in training camp, then a shoulder injury, rib injury, finger fracture and now the concussion/knee issue.
Who will San Francisco look to in his stead? General manager John Lynch joined “Murph and Mac” to talk all things 49ers on Friday and gave his outlook on what looks to be a Jeff Wilson Jr.-led backfield with JaMycal Hasty behind him.
Asked if Wilson Jr. will be the No. 1 back, Lynch said “there’s a chance.”
“Jeff has looked really good this week, he has,” Lynch said. “Coming back from that knee, he’s been back, but then there’s the time that you kind of get your legs underneath you. And the good news for us is this week in practice, he looked like he was moving extremely well and running with great confidence. So Jeff Wilson’s, a really good player… we’re really encouraged by the way Jeff has looked this week.”
It’s often been a difficult project to piece together how Kyle Shanahan intends to use his running backs when there’s not a clear No. 1, and in the past he strayed away from using a bell cow system.
It sounds like Hasty is likely to have an increased role, too, with practice squadder Brian Hill bookending the backfield unit.
“JaMycal Hasty is is another guy who adds a lot of value and has really been a solid player for us this year,” Lynch said. “Kind of a third-down role and may have to expand that. Then Brian Hill, who we just worked out earlier this week, but he’s done a nice job kind of picking up the playbook. There’s some carryover from what he did in Atlanta, but we’ve been very impressed. So if needed, he can go as well and and it’s gonna be all hands on deck.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.