San Francisco recently restructured Jerick McKinnon's contract. It's a polite way of saying he took a huge paycut to stay on the roster. McKinnon hasn't played a regular-season down in two years with the team, so no one should be expecting him to make any kind of impact this year, either.
But beat writer Matt Maiocco isn't writing McKinnon off. He thinks McKinnon, for his pass-catching ability, will have a spot on the team. If healthy; that's the obvious caveat. But Maiocco thinks McKinnon's receiving potential offers something the other backs -- Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman and Matt Breida -- don't have.
I had to dust off the old files, what with McKinnon being on the shelf for two entire seasons due to knee issues. But Maiocco has a point. Back in 2016-2017, McKinnon had more receptions than all but eight other running backs.
RUNNING BACK RECEIVING, 2016-2017 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | No(16) | Yds(16) | No(17) | Yds(17) | No(Tot) | Yds(Tot) |
LeVeon Bell | 75 | 616 | 85 | 655 | 160 | 1271 |
Duke Johnson | 53 | 514 | 74 | 693 | 127 | 1207 |
James White | 60 | 551 | 56 | 429 | 116 | 980 |
LeSean McCoy | 50 | 356 | 59 | 448 | 109 | 804 |
Todd Gurley | 43 | 327 | 64 | 788 | 107 | 1115 |
Theo Riddick | 53 | 371 | 53 | 444 | 106 | 815 |
Mark Ingram | 46 | 319 | 58 | 416 | 104 | 735 |
Melvin Gordon | 41 | 419 | 58 | 476 | 99 | 895 |
Jerick McKinnon | 43 | 255 | 51 | 421 | 94 | 676 |
DeMarco Murray | 53 | 377 | 39 | 266 | 92 | 643 |
Devonta Freeman | 54 | 462 | 36 | 317 | 90 | 779 |
Chris Thompson | 49 | 349 | 39 | 510 | 88 | 859 |
David Johnson | 80 | 879 | 6 | 67 | 86 | 946 |
Carlos Hyde | 27 | 163 | 59 | 350 | 86 | 513 |
Giovani Bernard | 39 | 336 | 43 | 389 | 82 | 725 |
Alvin Kamara | -- | -- | 81 | 826 | 81 | 826 |
Bilal Powell | 58 | 388 | 23 | 170 | 81 | 558 |
Christian McCaffrey | -- | -- | 80 | 651 | 80 | 651 |
T.J. Yeldon | 50 | 312 | 30 | 224 | 80 | 536 |
Kyle Juszczyk | 37 | 266 | 33 | 315 | 70 | 581 |
Isaiah Crowell | 40 | 319 | 28 | 182 | 68 | 501 |
Lamar Miller | 31 | 188 | 36 | 327 | 67 | 515 |
Frank Gore | 38 | 277 | 29 | 245 | 67 | 522 |
Matt Forte | 30 | 263 | 37 | 293 | 67 | 556 |
Devontae Booker | 31 | 265 | 30 | 275 | 61 | 540 |
Darren Sproles | 52 | 427 | 7 | 73 | 59 | 500 |
Charles Sims | 24 | 190 | 35 | 249 | 59 | 439 |
Ezekiel Elliott | 32 | 363 | 26 | 269 | 58 | 632 |
Tevin Coleman | 31 | 421 | 27 | 299 | 58 | 720 |
Jalen Richard | 29 | 194 | 27 | 256 | 56 | 450 |
Travaris Cadet | 40 | 281 | 16 | 119 | 56 | 400 |
Shane Vereen | 11 | 94 | 44 | 253 | 55 | 347 |
Charcandrick West | 28 | 188 | 27 | 150 | 55 | 338 |
Tarik Cohen | -- | -- | 53 | 358 | 53 | 358 |
Kareem Hunt | -- | -- | 53 | 455 | 53 | 455 |
Jordan Howard | 29 | 298 | 23 | 125 | 52 | 423 |
Andre Ellington | 12 | 85 | 39 | 369 | 51 | 454 |
Jay Ajayi | 27 | 151 | 24 | 158 | 51 | 309 |
DeAndre Washington | 17 | 115 | 34 | 197 | 51 | 312 |
Dion Lewis | 17 | 94 | 32 | 214 | 49 | 308 |
Javorius Allen | 3 | 15 | 46 | 250 | 49 | 265 |
Latavius Murray | 33 | 264 | 15 | 103 | 48 | 367 |
Rex Burkhead | 17 | 145 | 30 | 254 | 47 | 399 |
C.J. Anderson | 16 | 128 | 28 | 224 | 44 | 352 |
Damien Williams | 23 | 249 | 20 | 155 | 43 | 404 |
Kenyan Drake | 9 | 46 | 32 | 239 | 41 | 285 |
Chris Ivory | 20 | 186 | 21 | 175 | 41 | 361 |
Worth noting that McKinnon didn't do a ton with his receptions. If you sort the above list by yards, he drops behind seven other running backs. That includes finishing behind Tevin Coleman, who caught 36 fewer passes those two seasons but finished with 44 more yards than McKinnon. Hmm.
I don't think anyone should have much optimism for McKinnon. Raheem Mostert looks like the back to own in San Francisco, and probably Coleman will be the No. 2. McKinnon and Matt Breida are competing for that third spot.
But the way Breida was phased out down the stretch last year, Maiocco believes he's a roster longshot, and that a healthy McKinnon -- should that actually happen -- is more likely to be there. If you're holding onto Breida in dynasty, your best hope might be that he lands on another roster with a more significant role than he could expect if he sticks in San Francisco.
--Andy Richardson