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How Early will the 49ers Draft a Running Back this Year?

Don't be shocked if the 49ers take a running back in Round 1 or 2 this year.

Grant Cohn

Dec 31, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty (2) rushes the ball against the Penn State Nittany Lions during the first half in the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Dec 31, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty (2) rushes the ball against the Penn State Nittany Lions during the first half in the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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The 49ers have spent a third- or fourth-round pick on a running back in three of the past four drafts. And this year, they need a running back more than ever.

Christian McCaffrey is coming off a season in which he missed 13 games due to bilateral Achilles tendonitis and a torn PCL. His body might be breaking down. He's not a particularly big, stout runner plus he will turn 29 in June. The 49ers have to be prepared for him to miss more games.

His backup, Jordan Mason, just got traded to the Vikings. So the new backup is Isaac Guerendo, who ran the ball just 84 times as a rookie last season and suffered two injuries -- one to his foot and one to his knee. The latter ended his season.

Which means the 49ers can't really count on either of their top two running backs to stay healthy and carry a big workload next season. So they absolutely have to draft another player at this position and they might not be able to wait until Round 3 or 4 to take one this year. They might have to take one even earlier.

The 49ers are a run-first team that thrives when it has an elite running back. See: 2019 with prime Raheem Mostert and 2023 with prime CMC. Those two players were elite. Meanwhile, the 49ers have won lots of games with average quarterbacks.

Which is why the 49ers might consider drafting Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty if he falls to the 11th pick. Jeanty is considered the best running back to enter the draft since Saquon Barkley, who just won the Offensive Player of the Year Award and the Super Bowl.

Jeanty would be the perfect heir apparent to McCaffrey, and the two of them could form the best one-two punch in football while McCaffrey is healthy.

Don't be shocked if the 49ers take a running back in Round 1 or 2 this year.

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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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