Tevin Coleman looked like he might be following a path plenty of running backs have followed where he put together a handful of good years before tailing off and unceremoniously exiting football. Then the 49ers called and Sunday Coleman gave a loud answer.
Coleman was good for San Francisco during their Super Bowl run in 2019 after he signed a two-year deal with them prior to that season. He posted 544 yards on the ground and seven total touchdowns, and put together a terrific playoff game against the Vikings to get the 49ers to the NFC championship.
The two years after that didn’t go so well though. In 19 games with the 49ers and Jets, Coleman ran it 112 times for 409 yards. He didn’t score a touchdown. His longest run in that stretch was 20 yards. The Jets cut him this offseason and he entered the regular season as a free agent.
“I was at home,” Coleman told reporters after Sunday’s game. “I was at home spending time with my family. Getting my family time in.”
Then a couple of injuries forced the 49ers to dip into the free agent pool and they added the always-reliable Coleman. He needed just two weeks to make an impact. Sunday in Carolina, Coleman had 67 yards and two touchdowns on 11 touches.
“It felt real good,” Coleman told reporters after the game. “It felt so good just going out there and getting touches and proving that I still have it.”
Perhaps the play of the game though was Coleman’s leaping 30-yard grab over the top of a Panthers defensive back on a third-and-long to extend a 49ers drive early in the game. The first time Jimmy Garoppolo made that throw to Coleman was Sunday.
“It was a catch that I was doing all week in practice,” Coleman said. “At practice, Jimmy actually didn’t throw it to me at practice when he was supposed to. So he was like, ‘in the game we going to get it. In the game, we going to get it. In the game, we going to get it.’ I was just ready for that play. I knew he was going to throw it.”
It turns out the 49ers QB wasn’t even supposed to put the ball up to his running back in that spot, but Garoppolo had faith in the familiar veteran RB to make a play.
“And there was a DB on me. He wasn’t supposed to throw it, but he definitely trusted me,” Coleman said. “If a linebacker come out there on me then yeah. But a DB come out there on me, then he wasn’t supposed to throw it. But he trusted me so it was good.”
Coleman got rolling with a nine-yard touchdown catch a screen in the red zone on the 49ers’ first drive. He capped his day with a five-yard scamper around the left end with just over three minutes left Sunday to give the 49ers a 37-15 lead and put the game fully out of reach for Carolina.
The 49ers have needed a wrinkle at RB with Elijah Mitchell and Tyrion Davis-Price both out with injuries. Neither undrafted rookie Jordan Mason nor veteran Marlon Mack were carving out any kind of roll though, leaving the door open for a veteran like Coleman to burst in and make his mark.
Sunday was his first opportunity of the season, and given how he played, it’s hard to believe that’ll be his last. He may just be the second RB the 49ers have so desperately needed.
