There aren’t many stories in the NFL this season better than San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason.
The third-year undrafted rookie RB entered the season with 83 career carries and looked to be in line for another year a seldom-used reserve behind reigning Offensive Player of the Year, Christian McCaffrey. Now he’s the NFL’s second-leading rusher and San Francisco’s workhorse back while McCaffrey nurses bi-lateral Achilles tendinitis.
Mason isn’t satisfied with simply being a good story, though.
He joined the Candlestick Chronicles podcast with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (launching October 25!), and said even before his new role emerged he was setting goals for himself to be the 49ers’ best running back.
“You gotta have goals within yourself, honestly,” Mason said. “I mean, I know who Christian McCaffrey is, and I wanna be better than him. He’s great, but I wanna be greater. So that’s my motivation in life. I want to get better as myself. I want to get better — like I see my kids, when they look at me, they look at me like Superman. So I’ve gotta be Superman for them. So just things like that. You’ve gotta be motivated. You’ve gotta have that fire in you.”
While Mason has work to do to surpass McCaffrey, he’s off to a good start in his first stretch as a full-time, No. 1 back. His 5.2 yards per carry are the third-highest among players with at least 100 rushes, and he’s on pace to churn out 1,619 rushing yards — 232 more than McCaffrey’s career-high.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Mason’s strong start is that he’s maintained his productivity despite an unprecedented workload. He had his NFL career-high in carries for a season after only two games. Now he’s 44 carries shy of his career high in carries at Georgia Tech. He had 172 attempts in the 2019 campaign.
Mason said the expanded role hasn’t changed the way he handles himself during the season, save for some body maintenance.
“Honestly, you don’t want to change a lot,” Mason said. “Cuz then you start getting in your head thinking ‘oh you gotta do this. Oh you gotta do that.’ Like Christian even told me. He was like, ‘dude, just do you. What you’ve done has got you here, so just continue to do you.’ And that’s literally what he told me from himself, so I’m just staying the same. Obviously you’ve gotta do more things with maintaining your body. I’ve done acupuncture more times than ever before.”
The star RB admitted he isn’t a fan of needles, but he’s gotten used to the acupuncture treatment.
As the 49ers’ stumble toward their Week 9 Bye, they’re under a microscope with a 3-4 record after entering the season as a Super Bowl favorite.
While there are several ways to parse just what’s wrong with the 49ers this season, their offense is a particular aspect that’s drawn some scrutiny. They’ve made some changes to how they operate on that side of the ball with more downfield passing and fewer short throws that generate yards after the catch.
There’s still a heavy emphasis on the run game, and while Mason didn’t want to talk about some of the larger changes to San Francisco’s offensive approach, he knows exactly what his role is supposed to be when his number is called.
“I’m not gonna say too much about that,” Mason said. “All I know is when Brock Purdy wants to give me the ball, I’m there and I’m ready.”
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