The 49ers have a competition happening at running back.
While nobody is going to push Christian McCaffrey for the starting job, the spot behind him on the depth chart is certainly up for grabs.
Elijah Mitchell has reliably been the 49ers’ No. 2 RB since McCaffrey arrived in Week 7 of the 2022 season, but injuries have left him in and out of the lineup and paved a road for that spot to get taken. There hasn’t been much in the way of competition for him the last two years, but third-year undrafted RB Jordan Mason is vying for Mitchell’s spot as the No. 2 behind McCaffrey.
“I’d say, nothing against Elijah, there’s been no fall off in Elijah at all, but JP (Mason) runs at a very high level,” Shanahan told reporters Monday. “I see in both of those guys, that if Christian is not in there, not going, I mean we always expect no matter who we’ve had in the past, that number two, number three, sometimes our fourth guy comes in. And if their number is called, we expect them to run like a starting back and just how many reps did they get at it, how long did they last at things like that. JP wasn’t there right away, but he got there pretty quick. He did a hell of a job for us last year. We’ll see how camp plays out. But I love both of those guys and got some depth behind them too.”
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner on Twitter noted how much run Mason has been getting with the first team in camp as well. That’s typically an indicator a player is vying for a job where snaps with that group will be a regular occurrence.
It’s not a huge surprise to see Mason finally making a push for a regular offensive role. His improvement as a receiver has been noted by reporters during camp, which only further opens the door for a back who has averaged 5.6 yards per carry on 83 rushes as a pro.
This will be fascinating to watch through the rest of camp because McCaffrey isn’t liable to get much preseason work so there should be a ton of snaps for Mason and Mitchell to decide the RB2 job on the field.
