Tag: Elijah Mitchell

49ers place former starting RB on season-ending IR

Elijah Mitchell’s time with the 49ers might be over.

The San Francisco 49ers made a surprise move when they announced their final cuts.

Running back Elijah Mitchell didn’t make the initial 53-man roster because he was placed on Injured Reserve. He was did not receive a designation to return, meaning his 2024 season is over.

It was unclear at first what injury he sustained that ended his season early, but it might also end his tumultuous tenure with the 49ers.

ESPN’s Nick Wagoner later reported it was a hamstring injury that ended Mitchell’s season. He suffered a hamstring injury early in training camp. The one that ended his year was a separate, more severe injury.

Since being drafted in the sixth-round of the 2021 draft, Mitchell has run the gamut of being a star starting running back to an oft-injured reserve. In his first three seasons he played in only 27 games with 12 starts.

Even after moving into a reserve role behind Christian McCaffrey he was unable to stay healthy with any level of consistency.

Still, his absence from the roster is a hit for the 49ers given how productive he’s been as a pro. Mitchell in 27 games has 327 carries for 1,523 yards and nine touchdowns. It’s hard to feel like those numbers aren’t a bit of a disappointment given how quickly he burst on the scene. He broke out as a rookie with 963 rushing yards and five scores in 207 carries.

Running backs who did make the club are McCaffrey, Jordan Mason, rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor.

Mitchell is due to hit free agency in the offseason. He could reach a buyout with the 49ers this year and become an unrestricted free agent this season.

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49ers may have to get active in trade market with final cuts looming

Don’t be surprised if the 49ers are busy in the trade market.

The San Francisco 49ers may have some work to do to shore up some key areas of their roster.

Final cuts are due at 1:00pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, and a quick run through of their potential 53-man roster exposes a couple of areas where depth is a real problem for the 49ers. On the other hand, there are a couple spots where they have excess talent and may have to let go of an NFL-caliber player.

Those two things may lead the 49ers to get active in the trade market early in the season.

Let’s start at quarterback where Josh Dobbs and Brandon Allen both made strong cases to be the team’s backup signal caller. It’s hard to envision San Francisco letting one of them go since they’d likely get scooped up to another team’s 53-man roster.

Perhaps the 49ers want to keep three QBs. However, reliable QB play is scarce enough in the NFL that one of Dobbs or Allen could fetch a decent return in a trade where San Francisco lets one of them go.

Running back is another position where the 49ers could execute a trade. If Jordan Mason has passed Elijah Mitchell on the depth chart, it doesn’t leave any kind of role for Mitchell since he doesn’t contribute on special teams. In that event, the 49ers could aim to move their 2021 sixth-round pick and roll with Christian McCaffrey, Mason, and rookies Isaac Guerendo and Cody Schrader since they can both take on special teams roles.

Mitchell has been a good player for the 49ers when he’s been healthy, but availability has been a problem throughout his NFL career. It was a problem again this offseason when he missed a big chunk of camp because of a hamstring injury. Head coach Kyle Shanahan trusts him, which may be enough to earn a roster spot, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the 49ers try and move him for a draft pick.

Linebacker is the final spot where the 49ers may have a trade chip available. If they keep six LBs on their 53-man roster, it still leaves out one of Dee Winters, Jalen Graham, Curtis Robinson or Tatum Bethune. San Francisco may just try cutting one and getting them to the practice squad, but they could also move one for a late-round draft pick.

We saw them execute a similar move with undrafted rookie Jonas Griffith in 2021. San Francisco dealt Griffith to the Broncos with a seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixth-round pick. Don’t be surprised if that’s the ultimate solution to the 49ers’ glut of LB options.

Moving on from players for late-round picks is nice for next year, but the 49ers may also need to get active in bringing in players.

Their depth at defensive end is rough, and more help there is going to be necessary at some point this season. They’ll likely scour the waiver wire as final cuts start rolling in to see if they can swipe a player without having to trade for one.

They should be on the phone before that though to eliminate other teams from the equation. If they can find a pass rusher that’s going to get cut, and they can trade a late pick for them, they should do so.

At this point of the year that trade isn’t going to land them a Pro Bowler. Their sudden injury issues at DE lower the bar for what they need at the position though. With Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos both working through knee sprains, San Francisco is dangerously thin at DE. Perhaps they love their in-house options, but adding another body or two at the position definitely wouldn’t hurt with a couple weeks to go until the regular season.

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Has undrafted RB done enough to shake up 49ers RB depth chart?

It might finally be Jordan Mason SZN (season).

The San Francisco 49ers running back depth could look a little different this season.

Typically whoever is listed behind Christian McCaffrey on the depth chart wouldn’t matter much. McCaffrey has played virtually every meaningful snap for the 49ers since he arrived in the middle of the 2022 season. The backup RB was used sparingly to either chew clock with tough runs between the tackles, or in the event McCaffrey was unavailable.

Over the last couple of years the RB2 job has belonged to 2021 sixth-round pick Elijah Mitchell. It’s been hard to argue with the choice given how good Mitchell has been when he’s on the field. The problem is his availability has been scattershot in each of his first three NFL seasons. His healthy questions have opened the door for 2022 undrafted RB Jordan Mason to sneak into that backup role.

Mason’s ascension felt inevitable. He’s averaging 5.6 yards per carry on 83 attempts as a pro, and his downhill running style fits the 49ers’ scheme well. Mason has filled in when Mitchell has been out, but the last couple years it’s been Mitchell back in the RB2 role once he’s healthy.

Whether it’s a skill set issue or some other problem only apparent to 49ers offensive coaches, Mason just hasn’t been able to overtake Mitchell.

That appears to be changing in 2024 with Mitchell sidelined again by a hamstring injury during training camp. Mason got the first series of the 49ers preseason opener and turned in six carries for 34 yards and a touchdown behind an offensive line that featured only three of the 49ers’ presumed starters and no Trent Williams.

Tacking that on with his improved pass catching and it becomes harder to envision a world where it’s Mason, not Mitchell, backing up McCaffrey in 2024.

It may be more important than ever, too. While McCaffrey still figures to play a lion’s share of the snaps, the 49ers could aim to lighten the 28-year-old’s workload as he enters his eighth NFL season. Those end-of-game snaps that used to be available in blowouts may become more frequent in close games. They may also come more frequently through the early parts of games to keep the aging RB fresh.

If Mason continues running the way he has his entire career while getting extra reps with Mitchell out, he could very well be the player the 49ers call in to relieve McCaffrey this season.

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Should you handcuff San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey?

Here’s how you should approach San Fran RBs in fantasy leagues.

The San Francisco 49ers transformed their franchise prior to the trade deadline in 2022 with a blockbuster deal to acquire Christian McCaffrey. After mixing and matching running backs for years, McCaffrey has brought stability to the 49ers’ running game since his arrival.

In 2023, McCaffrey became the first 49ers running back since Frank Gore in 2014 to rush for more than 1,000 yards. He authored a dominant season that put him in the MVP conversation and earned his way to the consensus top pick in fantasy drafts. With the ultimate investment that comes with the first overall pick, in many cases fantasy managers opt to use their last running back selection on the No. 1 guy’s backup. In San Francisco, that’s a dicey option.

This situation is especially importing given a calf injury has McCaffrey, fantasy’s consensus top pick, set to miss the entire preseason.

The most obvious choice would be fourth-year man Elijah Mitchell. In his 2021 rookie season, Mitchell ran for 963 yards in 11 games. But he has been all but invisible since Run CMC arrived. In hindsight, Mitchell’s inability to stay healthy helped force the 49ers’ hand to make the McCaffrey trade. In three seasons, the 49ers played 51 total games. Of those, Mitchell was available for only 27 of them.

Because of the lack of confidence that Mitchell can stay healthy, the 49ers need a Plan C option. Jordan Mason was an undrafted free agent in 2022 and has kept a roster spot by playing special teams and finishing off lopsided wins. However, in two seasons, he has 83 carries for 464 yards and four touchdowns

The wild card is rookie Isaac Guerendo. Despite turning 24 in June after spending five injury-filled seasons at Wisconsin before transferring Louisville last season, Guerendo rushed 132 times for 810 yards, caught 22 passes for 234 yards and scored 11 touchdowns in part-time duty a year ago. However, what makes him somebody to keep an eye on is his 4.33-second 40 time at the combine that vaulted him to being drafted early on Day 3. If the 49ers offense wants to operate the same as it does with McCaffrey is he’s down, Guerendo may be the most similarly explosive player.

Fantasy football outlook

Most teams have a clear handcuff option in the event their primary back goes down. The 49ers don’t, in part because they constantly dealt with injuries and timeshare changes before McCaffrey arrived.

At one point, their primary rusher was Deebo Samuel, due to a rash of injuries. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk, while sparsely used in the offense, could step up and be a goal-line sniper. The Niners are equipped to go pass-happy in a given week to make up for McCaffrey being out.

Today, it’s even murkier due to Mitchell and Guerendo each battling hamstring injuries. It’s tough for a rookie to unseat a veteran and nearly impossible if the former can’t stay healthy. Mitchell is expected to miss roughly a week of practice, whereas Guerendo is considered week to week after getting hurt during the first practice of camp. As a result, veteran Matt Breida was added to the roster.

For those who draft McCaffrey, Mitchell should be the handcuff, and his RB5 ADP ranking puts him in a position that it wouldn’t be a reach. The reason for that recommendation comes from the largely unremembered, meaningless final six quarters of the 49ers’ regular season. McCaffrey sat for that period with playoff positioning locked up, and Mitchell was given a chance to prove himself. He responded with 31 carries for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

Guerendo is not entirely worthless but has lost valuable practice time and will need Mitchell to miss game action before he warrants a roster spot.

Wrinkles 49ers can throw at Chiefs to win Super Bowl

Here are a few fun wrinkles the #49ers can throw at the Chiefs in the Super Bowl:

This iteration of the 49ers has been around long enough that there aren’t many secrets about how they want to execute a game plan. They have a ton of star power and enough depth that they can win a lot of games by just lining up and doing what they want to do on both sides of the ball.

The Super Bowl offers a unique opportunity to throw a couple of curveballs that haven’t been put on tape often or at all. Even a couple possessions with a team on its heels trying to adjust on the fly could be the difference between a win and a loss.

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San Francisco on Sunday will lean on most of what its done to reach the NFL’s biggest stage, but here are a handful of wrinkles they could throw in to get an edge vs. Kansas City:

Watch: 49ers score 10th opening drive TD of season in Week 18 vs. Rams

Elijah Mitchell tallied the 49ers’ league-leading 10th opening drive touchdown of the season.

Although Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey were on the sideline, the San Francisco 49ers did what they always do on the opening drive of Week 18 against the Los Angeles Rams.

With Sam Darnold under center, the 49ers marched right down the field on their way to their league-leading 10th touchdown of the season on the opening drive of the game.

While Darnold went a perfect 5-for-5, Elijah Mitchell finished the drive off with a 1-yard touchdown run up the middle. Behind Mitchell’s run, the 49ers took an early 7-0 lead over the Rams.

Via @49ers on Twitter:

This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

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Fantasy football sleepers to play in Week 18

Taking a look at some sleepers to play in Week 18.

While the majority of fantasy football leagues have concluded, there are still some leagues that partake in a Week 18 championship, and we’re still here to help those who need it.

And, even though the vast majority of fantasy managers are no longer competing, we can use these sleepers for prop betting and DFS plays.

We will be using The Huddle’s weekly PPR projections and rankings as a reference to find some potential boom games this week.

Best Fantasy Football waiver wire pickups for Week 18

Here are some waiver wire options for fantasy this week.

After the 17th full slate of regular-season action, many fantasy football leagues have already finished their playoffs, but for some, Week 18 is their championship.

If you had a tough injury in Week 17, you just didn’t get the production from one of your players that you expected or you have a player that will be rested, we’ll scan the waiver wire. For potential pickups, we’ll consider players who are available in at least 50% of ESPN fantasy leagues.

Let’s take a look at some of the potential waiver wire pickups that could help your teams heading into Week 18 of the NFL campaign.

Fantasy football waiver wire: Week 18 free-agent forecast

Check out the top waiver-wire targets for Week 18.

Fantasy football waiver wire recommendations refer to 12-team league formats, unless specifically stated.

Check back for any updates throughout Monday and Tuesday as more injury news becomes available.

The good and bad from the 49ers’ 27-10 win over the Commanders to lock up the NFC No. 1 seed

Here’s a look at all of the good and some of the bad from the 49ers’ 27-10 victory over the Commanders on New Year’s Eve.

Before they could lock up the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC playoff picture, the San Francisco 49ers had to go through the Washington Commanders in Week 17.

Despite a slow start that saw the Commanders trail by only three points at halftime, the 49ers were able to open things up in the second half to cruise to a double-digit victory.

With a pair of touchdowns in the second half, the 49ers rolled to a bounce-back win over the Commanders 27-10. Along with recording their 12th victory of the campaign on New Year’s Eve, the 49ers will head into 2024 with the No. 1 seed in the NFC locked up.

Following the 49ers’ win over the Commanders, here’s a look at some of the good and bad from Sunday’s contest in the capital.

This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!