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PFF: The 49ers Have the NFL's Best Running Back Unit
The 49ers don't have Super Bowl rings but they're still the best team in the NFL on paper, particularly at running back, according to Pro Football Focus.
"Christian McCaffrey is PFF's top-ranked running back heading into the 2024 season, so it should be no surprise the Niners take the No. 1 spot here," writes PFF analyst Trevor Sikkema. "McCaffrey generated the most PFF wins above average among running backs last season, at 0.25. Elijah Mitchell also remains a very solid RB2 option with rookie Isaac Guerendo as the upside RB3. Throw All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk into the list, and the 49ers more than deserve this ranking."
Here's my analysis of Sikemma's analysis:
1. It amuses me that he didn't mention Jordan Mason. Mason averaged 5.2 yards per carry and 40 rushes last season and 6.0 yards per carry on 43 rushes as a rookie in 2022. He's the upside RB3. Guerendo is a project who lacks experience and Mitchell is an injury-prone veteran who averaged just 3.7 yards per carry last season. His knee seems permanently damaged.
2. Technically Juszczyk is a fullback, but he carried the ball just 5 times for 6 yards last season -- he's a terrible running back, even in short-yardage situations. He's strictly a blocker and a receiver, which makes him more of a tight end who lines up in the backfield.
3. If McCaffrey is the best running back in the NFL and he's worth just a quarter of a win more than the league's average running back, what does that say about the value of the position?
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.