Marcus Lattimore returned to practice for the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday for the first time this season.
The second-year running back from South Carolina has yet to play in an NFL game after being drafted by the 49ers in 2013. Lattimore suffered a devastating knee injury in college and has yet to be healthy enough to play in a game. He began the season on the non-football injury list for San Francisco and the team now has 21 days to evaluate Lattimore before making a decision to put him on the active roster or face another wasted season on injured reserve.
However, early impressions from offensive coordinator Greg Roman seem to indicate Lattimore has a chance to get on the field this season.
“It was good, very good ... great to see him out there,” Roman said via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “He worked with [running backs] Coach [Tom] Rathman after practice extra and got with some of the defensive players and got some contact work, which was really good. And I know they looked at that this morning in a pretty early meeting.
“He’s got his window and there’s a good plan in place to kind of progress him through that window and see where he’s at. Was pretty darned pleased.”
The 49ers only have two running backs on their active roster right now in Frank Gore and Carlos Hyde. Lattimore, if healthy, could bring some additional depth to a position that hasn’t been as successful for San Francisco as they’ve shown in past seasons.
