asane

The 49ers’ star offensive line quickly became an afterthought

Online Niel November 21, 2024

The San Francisco 49ers seem to be falling into a pattern of sidelining good players since quarterback Christian McCaffrey returned.

In McCaffrey’s absence, RB Jordan Mason posted 685 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 134 carries. Over those eight games, he averaged 5.11 yards per rush, which is tied for the seventh-best mark in the NFL. He rushed for over 100 yards three times, and the only time he rushed for less than 58 yards was in Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys, where he was injured after just six carries.

Now that McCaffrey is back, Mason is back to an offensive mindset. In the two games with McCaffrey in the lineup, Mason played just five snaps and had three carries for 18 yards.

For eight weeks it looked like Mason proved to be enough of a weapon for the 49ers to lean on more once McCaffrey returned. Mason couldn’t just call on McCaffrey to help him manage his Achilles injury, but he could provide explosive playmaking potential with a different running style than the starter.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t seem to plan on adding more to Mason’s workload anytime soon.

“Yeah, I like all those guys that play,” Shanahan said. “But it depends on the situation, it depends on how many times you get the ball, it depends on the drives, it depends on whether we put two backs in there. When you do two backs, then you’re either going to get him a big off or another receiver. But I’m not always thinking about how to get Christian out.

The potential exists for Shanahan to operate with McCaffrey and Mason (or fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo) on the field together, and he acknowledged as much in Wednesday’s news conference. However, he did not seem eager to make staffing part of the crime.

Instead, we’ll likely see more of what we saw a season ago. When McCaffrey is healthy, he’ll be on the field, and the 49ers will rely on him to be their playmaker. That seems to be the case, regardless of what kind of wrinkle another RB off the edge might add to the offense.