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Kyle Shanahan Says Packers RB Josh Jacobs is "as Good as it Gets"

Usually, the 49ers have the best running back on the field. That might not be the case this weekend.

Grant Cohn

Nov 17, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) runs for a touchdown against the Chicago Bears during the second half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
Nov 17, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) runs for a touchdown against the Chicago Bears during the second half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images / David Banks-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- Usually, the 49ers have the best running back on the field.

That might not be the case this weekend.

The 49ers will face Packers running back Josh Jacobs for the first time since 2022 when he was with the Raiders. Through 10 games this season, Jacobs has 1,024 yards from scrimmage and 5 touchdowns.

This week, I asked 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen what makes Jacob unique and how he has improved the Packers offense. Here's what they said courtesy of the 49ers p.r. department.

SHANAHAN: "Josh Jacobs is as good as it gets. I think the last time we faced him was in Vegas. I thought he was the best running back we faced that year. Christian will correct me on that, since we faced him at Carolina earlier that year. But no, he's a stud. He runs so hard, he's quick enough to make people miss, but he doesn't mess around when he makes people miss, he creates arm tackles, runs through arm tackles and I think he's consistently been one of the top in the league here over the last few years."

SORENSEN: "Unique is that I think he truly trusts the system and he's very physical and you see the jump cuts, but he doesn't just jump cut to just go wherever. I always feel like he's just going to the right place because if you're watching it, he's just bouncing, no he's going a gap at a time because he's jump cutting to get to. He's got such tight cuts that he'll get vertical. Everything's about getting vertical and he is very, very powerful. He’s got great contact balance and I just have a lot of respect for the way that he run because that really fits their scheme, stretching you out, cut it up, he can cut it back, he can bounce it out when they're just running these direct runs with double teams. He's doing it the right way and I have a lot of respect for him really for the last few years. He's a really good back."

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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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