The San Francisco 49ers have lost Jerick McKinnon for the 2018 season with a torn ACL, which brings Alfred Morris into full focus.
When the San Francisco 49ers signed running back Alfred Morris midway through the preseason, the idea was simple. With Jerick McKinnon and Matt Breida, the top two guys at the position, nursing preseason injuries, they wanted a look at potentially some more depth. What’s more, they needed someone to trot out there in preseason games that would be worth a look.
However, it now appears that Morris is going to play a much more critical role for the 49ers in 2018 than initially expected. While his preseason performance likely earned him a roster spot regardless, he could be a featured guy now given the injury to McKinnon.
On Saturday during practice, the free-agent signing from this offseason went down with a non-contact knee injury. The worst was then confirmed as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that McKinnon suffered a torn ACL and will be out for the entirety of the 2018 season.
Losing McKinnon is somewhat of a blow to this offense. With his underrated ability as a runner and his value offensively as a pass-catcher out of the backfield, he seemed tailor-made to explode in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense. That’s tough, but it does make the Morris signing incredibly valuable for the 49ers this season.
Morris thrived with the Washington Redskins during Shanahan’s time coaching the offense there, bursting onto the scene as a rookie and looking like a potential NFL star. While he’s got some more mileage on the tires, he’s still proven to be an effective runner in this league. And with Breida still healthy now, the two can comprise a solid backfield of complementary pieces.
This is certainly a bigger role for Morris than what the 49ers envisioned when they signed him. However, that’s not the worst thing. Though losing McKinnon is a loss they’ll feel, the fact that they have Morris to man the backfield with Breida should help the offense to, at the very least, not take a dramatic step back in a year where many are projecting them to break out.