After the 49ers signed Jarryd Hayne last offseason, there were several glowing reports about how the former rugby player was adapting to playing football in his first exposure to the game.
Hayne wound up making the 49ers as a running back and also served as their punt returner early in the season, but struggled fielding the ball and eventually lost his spot on the active roster in October. He returned to the practice squad and eventually made it back to the active roster in December.
The 49ers changed their coaching staff in the offseason, but Hayne is back for another go and one of the team’s executives thinks that Year Two will be more productive. Chief strategy officer and executive vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe oversees the team’s analytics department, but he pointed to other reasons why he believes better days are ahead.
“I think you’ll see a jump from him,’' Marathe said, via the San Jose Mercury News. “You look at elite athletes and those guys who have that willpower and desire to succeed and there’s something special in them. ... The one thing that intrigued us the most about Jarryd Hayne was that will. It was that succeed-at-all-costs mentality that he had. That’s what really attracted us to him. So when we brought him in, one of the big things was: Is he going to have enough time to acclimate? Is he going to have enough time to figure the game out? He improved week after week after week.”
Carlos Hyde is expected back at the top of the running back depth chart after last year’s foot injury, but Chip Kelly’s offense is going to have space for more than one running back. If Hayne can outshine Shaun Draughn, Mike Davis, DuJuan Harris and rookie Kelvin Taylor, that should leave an opportunity to make the jump Marathe is predicting.
