A story at the Athletic indicates that the 49ers have some optimism for last year's third-round running back Tyrion Davis-Price (pictured). Or at least they're saying they do. But nothing that happened on the field, or that's happened for San Francisco in the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan era, suggests anyone should buy into it.
Lynch and Shanahan were hired in 2017. Since then they've drafted five running backs. Just one of those players, sixth-rounder Elijah Mitchell, has put up a noteworthy season: Mitchell ranked 26th among running backs (PPR) in 2021. Fourth-rounder Joe Williams washed out quickly, and third-rounder Trey Sermon was gone from San Francisco after one season (active for only 2 games for Philadelphia this year).
If Davis-Price is going to challenge that history, there was no indication in 2022. He appeared in six games, carrying 34 times for 99 yards -- just 2.9 yards per attempt. With Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, and undrafted Jordan Mason around, Davis-Price will have some work to do to even make it up to San Francisco's top 3 at the position next year.
Aside from Mitchell, and the traded-for McCaffrey, every running back who has done anything at all in this backfield the last six years has come to the team via free agency -- either an undrafted player (Breida, Wilson), or a signing (Coleman, Morris). The team's other draft picks simply haven't worked out.
Table shows numbers for 49ers running backs since 2017. (For McCaffrey, his San Francisco stats are shown, along with his full-season PPR performance.) Players the current regime drafted are in bold.
| SAN FRANCISCO RUNNING BACKS, SHANAHAN ERA | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rd | Year | Player | G | Att | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR | Rk |
| (trade) | 2022 | Christian McCaffrey | 11 | 159 | 746 | 52 | 464 | 10 | 356.7 | 2 |
| 6th | 2021 | Elijah Mitchell | 11 | 207 | 963 | 19 | 137 | 6 | 165.0 | 26 |
| FA | 2018 | Matt Breida | 14 | 153 | 814 | 27 | 261 | 5 | 164.5 | 26 |
| FA | 2019 | Raheem Mostert | 16 | 137 | 772 | 14 | 180 | 10 | 169.2 | 26 |
| FA | 2020 | Jeff Wilson | 12 | 126 | 600 | 13 | 133 | 10 | 146.3 | 31 |
| FA | 2019 | Tevin Coleman | 14 | 137 | 544 | 21 | 180 | 7 | 135.4 | 39 |
| FA | 2020 | Jerick McKinnon | 16 | 81 | 319 | 33 | 253 | 6 | 126.2 | 39 |
| FA | 2019 | Matt Breida | 13 | 123 | 623 | 19 | 120 | 2 | 105.3 | 46 |
| FA | 2017 | Matt Breida | 16 | 105 | 465 | 21 | 180 | 3 | 103.5 | 47 |
| FA | 2020 | Raheem Mostert | 8 | 104 | 521 | 16 | 156 | 3 | 101.7 | 47 |
| FA | 2018 | Alfred Morris | 12 | 111 | 428 | 8 | 73 | 2 | 70.1 | 69 |
| FA | 2021 | JaMycal Hasty | 11 | 16 | 68 | 23 | 157 | 1 | 51.5 | 77 |
| FA | 2021 | Jeff Wilson | 9 | 79 | 294 | 7 | 31 | 2 | 51.5 | 78 |
| FA | 2019 | Jeff Wilson | 10 | 27 | 105 | 3 | 34 | 5 | 46.9 | 78 |
| FA | 2018 | Jeff Wilson | 6 | 66 | 266 | 12 | 98 | 0 | 48.4 | 81 |
| 6th | 2022 | Elijah Mitchell | 5 | 45 | 279 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 43.6 | 82 |
| FA | 2018 | Raheem Mostert | 9 | 34 | 261 | 6 | 25 | 1 | 40.6 | 85 |
| FA | 2022 | Jordan Mason | 16 | 43 | 258 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31.8 | 87 |
| FA | 2020 | JaMycal Hasty | 8 | 39 | 148 | 7 | 33 | 1 | 31.1 | 90 |
| 3rd | 2021 | Trey Sermon | 9 | 41 | 167 | 3 | 26 | 1 | 28.3 | 99 |
| FA | 2022 | Tevin Coleman | 5 | 12 | 26 | 3 | 44 | 2 | 22.0 | 99 |
| 3rd | 2022 | Tyrion Davis-Price | 6 | 34 | 99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.9 | 123 |
| FA | 2020 | Tevin Coleman | 8 | 28 | 53 | 4 | 34 | 0 | 12.7 | 126 |
| FA | 2017 | Raheem Mostert | 11 | 6 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 146 |
| 4th | 2017 | Joe Williams | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .0 | 999 |
--Andy Richardson