Why Raheem Mostert Will Have a Bounce Back 2021 Season

He still averaged 5 yards per carry as the starter, because he's outstanding. But he played in only 8 games. Which means he missed 50 percent of the season.

Grant Cohn | May 20, 2021

Raheem Mostert didn't live up to expectations in 2020. I blame myself.

I said the 49ers should start Mostert and give him 15 carries per game. I said he could lead the entire NFL in rushing if given the opportunity. And the 49ers clearly listened, because I'm an honorary quality control coach, and a good one.

I set up Mostert for failure.

And he didn't really fail. He still averaged 5 yards per carry as the starter, because he's outstanding. But he played in only 8 games. Which means he missed 50 percent of the season. And the 49ers suffered because of his absence.

In retrospect, I was wrong to push the 49ers to start Mostert. Because as good as he is, he still weighs only 205 pounds. He isn't built to be a starting running back. Isn't built to withstand the pounding.

Last season, he averaged 13 carries per game, and even that was too much. The previous season, when Mostert was the change-of-pace running back, he averaged 8 carries per games, and stayed healthy all season.

Next season, I expect the 49ers will use Mostert they way they did in 2019 when he helped take them to the Super Bowl. That year, he was their No. 2 running back, a member of a three-man committee. And by using him sparingly, the 49ers kept him fresh for the playoffs, and then he singlehandedly took over the NFC Championship.

Look for Mostert to split carries with Jeff Wilson Jr., Trey Sermon and Elijah Mitchell in 2021.

And look for Mostert to outgain them all.

Published May 20, 2021

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.