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49ers RB Isaac Guerendo to Miss Week 16 with a Hamstring Injury

The 49ers will have to start their fourth different running back this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.

Grant Cohn

Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Isaac Guerendo (31) runs the ball against the Chicago Bears in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Isaac Guerendo (31) runs the ball against the Chicago Bears in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers will have to start their fourth different running back this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.

That's because rookie running back Isaac Guerendo is likely to miss Sunday's game with a hamstring injury he suffered this past Thursday night against the Rams, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Guerendo was filling in for Jordan Mason, who's on IR with a high ankle sprain. And Mason was filling in for Christian McCaffrey, who's on IR with a PCL injury.

Now the 49ers most likely will have to start running back Patrick Taylor Jr., who has just 14 carries for 50 yards and a touchdown this season. Or they could move Deebo Samuel to running back full -time, although he wouldn't necessarily qualify as an upgrade over Taylor considering Samuel is averaging a mere 2.8 yards per carry this season.

The 49ers also have rookie running back Israel Abanikanda whom they claimed off waivers two weeks ago. He hasn't carried the ball yet with the 49ers but this week could be his debut now that the 49ers have almost zero chance to make the playoffs.

Which means Guerendo's absence could be a blessing in disguise. The 49ers are a run-first team that struggles to win if it can't control games on the ground, and this Sunday's matchup with the Dolphins is a must-lose. The 49ers need to get as good of a first-round pick as they can so they can retool for next year.

Just lose, baby.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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