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Kyle Shanahan Provides Update on 49ers Running Back Israel Abanikanda

The 49ers desperately need a running back to step up this Thursday night when they face the Rams.

Grant Cohn

Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks on the field before the start of the game against the Chicago Bears at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks on the field before the start of the game against the Chicago Bears at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
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The 49ers desperately need a running back to step up this Thursday night when they face the Rams.

Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason both are on Injured Reserve for the rest of the regular season, and rookie Isaac Guerendo has a foot sprain that could prevent him from playing on such a short week. Even if he can suit up, he almost certainly won't be 100 percent healthy and could need help carrying the workload.

Enter rookie running back Israel Abanikanda. The 49ers claimed him last week after the New York Jets waived him, and he spent his first game on the inactive list as he tries to cram Kyle Shanahan's extremely large playbook into his brain as quickly as possible.

"He was meeting with [running backs coach Robert] Bobby Turner and everybody extra," Shanahan said on Monday. "He's getting his reps on the field. We script it all so it comes along out there, but that's more in the meeting room and everything, just being able to line up and do everything we ask. His opportunity is getting closer, especially Isaac getting banged up. So, you’ve always got to have three guys in the building in case situations like this happen. And hopefully it doesn't have to come to that, but if it does, we expect him to be ready."

Sounds like Abanikanda isn't quite ready and that Patrick Taylor Jr. will start Thursday night if Isaac Guerendo can't go. But don't be surprised if Abanikanda is active for the game and carries the ball a few times.

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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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