Marcus Lattimore’s college career ended with a terrible knee injury, and his NFL career ended before it began. A fourth-round pick of the 49ers in the 2013 draft, Lattimore never recovered well enough to get on the field.
Now that he’s making peace with the way his career ended, Lattimore admits that he’s surprised the 49ers ever drafted him in the first place. Lattimore figured he was an extreme long shot to ever come back from that extreme injury, and he wonders what the 49ers were thinking when they drafted him.
“I mean, why would you take a running back with two horrible knee injuries?” Lattimore told SB Nation. “I did pretty good, I played good in college, but if I’m a GM I don’t think I would do it.”
Lattimore says that during his time practicing with the 49ers, he always knew that he was nowhere near back to full speed, even as the team encouraged him.
“My running backs coach was like, ‘Good job! Good job!’” he said. “My offensive coordinator — I was catching balls out of the backfield — was like, ‘Man you look good!’ I was like, ‘You have no clue.’”
Eventually the 49ers figured out that Lattimore simply wasn’t going to be the player he once was. Lattimore seemed to know that before the team did.
