The 49ers running back room would be considered one of the NFL’s best regardless of who was behind Christian McCaffrey because McCaffrey is the best player at the position by a pretty significant margin. They easily take the top spot in Pro Football Focus’ running back unit rankings though because of the depth they’ve placed behind the reigning Offensive Player of the Year.
McCaffrey is going to shoulder most of the workload for San Francisco, but the players behind him would be an impressive RB group even if they didn’t have a superstar atop the depth chart.
Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, Patrick Taylor, fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and undrafted rookie Cody Schrader round out the RB room going into training camp. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk, the best player in the NFL at his position, is also included in the assessment by PFF.
Mitchell has dealt with some health issues throughout his three-year NFL career, but when he’s been on the field his production has been very good and certainly worthy of being the No. 1 RB on an NFL team.
Mason hasn’t gotten his footing just yet as an offensive contributor. He only has 83 carries in two seasons. However, he’s averaging 5.6 yards per carry in those attempts. There’s a chance Mason would start on some teams. He’d certainly be a more active contributor in a room that didn’t feature McCaffrey and Mitchell ahead of him.
Taylor, Guerendo and Schrader will all compete for roster spots in camp. Whichever player comes out of that trio will likely make an already very good running back unit even better.