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The 49ers Should Draft Syracuse RB LeQuint Allen in Round 4

The 49ers don't need just any running back. They need a specific kind of running back.

Grant Cohn

Jan 29, 2025; Mobile, AL, USA; National team running back LeQuint Allen Jr. of Syracuse (24) runs the ball during Senior Bowl practice for the National team at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images
Jan 29, 2025; Mobile, AL, USA; National team running back LeQuint Allen Jr. of Syracuse (24) runs the ball during Senior Bowl practice for the National team at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images / Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images
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The 49ers don't need just any running back. They need a specific kind of running back.

They've shown that they can plug lots of different styles of runners into their zone-blocking scheme and have success on the ground. But no matter how many efficient runners the 49ers have on their roster, when Christian McCaffrey is out, their offense struggles. Particularly their passing game.

That's because McCaffrey is one of the best receivers in the league. And that's because he's more than just a running back who can catch passes out of the backfield. He's a true dual threat who can motion to the slot or even out wide and run routes like a receiver.

Syracuse running back LeQuint Allen has a similar skill set. He's 6'0", 204 lbs and he has 32-inch arms, so he's built like a wide receiver and he runs routes like one, too. Last season, he caught 64 passes for 520 receiving yards. He also gained 1,021 rushing yards and scored 16 rushing touchdowns.

I'm not saying Allen is as good as McCaffrey, but if McCaffrey were to get injured and miss more time, the 49ers wouldn't have to change their offense drastically with Allen in the game. He could line up in the same places and run the same routes as McCaffrey. Plus he could share the workload on the ground.

The 49ers' offense operates at its best when it has wide-receiver-running-back dual threat such as McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel. Kyle Shanahan uses so much pre-snap motion that he's able to exploit mismatches with those hybrid players.

Now that Samuel is gone and McCaffrey could be on his last legs, Shanahan must replenish the 49ers' supply of dual-threat offensive weapons. Allen is a perfect fit.

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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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