The 49ers Can't Count on Jerick McKinnon

Get real.

Grant Cohn | May 11, 2020

The 49ers still won’t give up on Jerick McKinnon.

They gave him a four-year, $30 million contract in 2018 to be their featured running back, because they think he’s a perfect fit in their offense. But he still hasn’t played a down for the 49ers. McKinnon has missed the past two seasons with a torn ACL. Now, we hear the team feels optimistic about McKinnon’s second rehab attempt.

Don’t get your hopes up.

This is the time of the offseason when teams become hopeful and optimistic. The time when we tend to read reports such as, “NaVorro Bowman hasn’t lost a step since tearing his Achilles,” or, “Solomon Thomas is poised for a breakout season.”

Fantasies.

Remember last year, the 49ers were quite optimistic about McKinnon’s rehab. They said he and Jimmy Garoppolo both were on track to return for training camp. Those two had the same knee injury, except McKinnon suffered his a month earlier.

Garoppolo returned for the start of camp. McKinnon did not.

McKinnon suffered a “setback,” so the 49ers put him on the Physically Unable to Perform List for the first week of training camp. He returned on August 6, participated in just two practices -- no scrimmages, just warmups -- and re-injured his knee.

The 49ers shut down McKinnon for three more weeks and gave his knee a Platelet-Rich Plasma injection. He returned on August 27 for one practice, then re-re-injured his knee. So the 49ers placed him on the Injured Reserve List, and he had to get a second procedure on his knee because the first one didn’t work.

Before McKinnon can fulfill the 49ers’ hopes and dreams and become their featured running back, or a mere third-down back, he has to prove he can practice three days in a row without hurting himself. Then he has to prove he can practice three weeks in a row. Then he has to show he’s still good. Has to show he still can cut and juke and beat man to man coverage.

I understand why the 49ers haven’t given up on McKinnon, and I admire their loyalty. But they can’t seriously count on him next season.

Get real.

Published May 11, 2020

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.