With the 49ers quite possibly having four active tailbacks on game days in 2019, one of them presumably will become the short-yardage specialist. For now, that title could land with newcomer Tevin Coleman.
“Tevin runs hard and he’s physical,” coach Kyle Shanahan said this week in Arizona, via Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com. “Tevin plays like a big back to me. And I don’t even know his exact weight compared to everyone else in the league. I think he’s like 215 [pounds], but Tevin runs hard, he gets downhill and he is not at all, he just doesn’t run like a small back.”
Regardless of who it is, Shanahan prefers a short-yardage specialist.
“I want that,” Shanahan said. “What is a short-yardage power back? Is that just the biggest guy possible? Is it the Nigerian Nightmare [Christian Okoye]? Is that the only way? It doesn’t have to always be that way. I think Frank Gore is an unbelievable short-yardage back and is he a real big guy? No, he’s a normal back. So I think our guys can be similar to that. We do have some smaller guys but [Jerick] McKinnon is bigger than people think. Tevin Coleman is bigger than people think. I don’t consider them small backs. I think they’re normal sized. They’re not huge, but that’s how NFL backs are built.”
Joining Coleman and McKinnon are Matt Breida and Raheem Mostert. G.M. John Lynch confirmed this week that they’ll keep McKinnon, who tore an ACL before the regular-season began, for 2019. Coleman is a guy Shanahan wanted to add, given their past work together in Atlanta.
However it plays out, it will be impossible to see how good the 49ers can be if their key players can’t stay healthy, running back and otherwise. If they can, the 49ers could be a factor in the NFC West.
