One Running Back the 49ers Should Sign Right Now

The 49ers essentially have zero healthy running backs.

Grant Cohn | Nov 19, 2020

The 49ers essentially have zero healthy running backs.

They have Jerick McKinnon, who still hasn't fully from two ACL surgeries and probably never will. He has "tired legs" that have no burst or explosion any more.

Then the 49ers have Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman, who might play next Sunday against the Rams, but might not be effective because they haven't played in a month.

So what should the 49ers do?

I have a solution.

There's a running back who's a free agent right now who was a Pro Bowler in 2016. He's only 26-years old. He's healthy. He has scored 36 touchdowns in 62 career games. And he averages 4.2 yards per carry and 63.4 rushing yards per game for his career.

His name is Jordan Howard.

He averaged 4.4 yards per carry just last season with the Philadelphia Eagles. Then he signed a two-year deal with the Miami Dolphins, gained just 28 yards on his first 33 carries and got waived, but also scored four touchdowns.

Howard might be a better fit on the 49ers. Or he might be washed up. Either way, he's cheap. The 49ers can sign him to their practice squad and see what he has left. If he stinks, they can cut him. But I'm guessing he's just as good as McKinnon and Coleman, if not better.

Remember, Howard went to the University of Indiana, where Coleman went. They're similar running backs who both fit the 49ers' outside-zone blocking scheme. The difference? Howard is younger and has had more success than Coleman in the NFL.

Sign Howard today.

Published Nov 19, 2020

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.