Sports

What 49ers Keep Getting Wrong When They Draft Running Backs

By Parker Hurley Sports Illustrated

Updated May 3, 2026 10:09 AM

The San Francisco 49ers are getting a lot of pushback for taking a running back high. Kyle Shanahan defended the pick by saying that he saw the second-best running back in the draft and that another team was going to take him. Based on the 49ers' track record, they may have been better off letting another team take him.

San Francisco 49ers are handling running back incorrectly

Since Kyle Shanahan has been the 49ers head coach, they have drafted six running backs. The first five have not lived up to expectations.

2017 - Joe Williams, 121 overall

Williams never took a regular-season career with the 49ers.

2021 - Trey Sermon, 88 overall

Sermon had 41 carries for 167 yards with San Francisco and has been on four teams since being drafted.

2022 - Tyrion Davis-Price, 93rd overall

Davis-Price had 40 carries for 127 yards for San Francisco and did not get a carry at all last year.

2024 - Isaac Guerendo, 129 overall

After 84 carries and 420 yards as a rookie, he did not record a regular season carry and is on the roster chopping block.

2025 - Jordan James, 147 overall

James did not get a carry until the playoffs of his rookie season, and now the 49ers drafted his competition.

2026 - Kaelon Black, 90 overall

One of the big issues is that the team seems to be looking for running backs in the wrong places. Because it is such a deep talent pool, the rare talents go in the top two rounds, and the rest slip through the cracks. The worst time to take one appears to be the middle rounds because the insane athletes are gone, and the players who fall late because they are too small, slow, or anything else are drafted after these options.

If you look at the top ten rushers since 2020, eight of them were drafted in the first two rounds. Kyren Williams was drafted after this range of runners because he was deemed small and slow. Tony Pollard is the only rusher to get drafted in the range that San Francisco takes their running backs in. He is not even on the team that drafted him.

Here are the running backs drafted since 2020 in the 88-147 range, which is where San Francisco has taken every running back.

Darrynton Evans, Josh Kelley, La'Michel Perine, Anthony McFarland, DeeJay Dallas, Michael Carter, Kene Nwangwu, Rhamondre Stevenson, Chuba Hubbard, Brian Robinson Jr, Dameon Pierce, Zamir White, Isaiah Spiller, Pierre Strong, Hassan Haskins, Roschon Johnson, Israel Abanikanda, Jaylen Wright, Bucky Irving, Will Shipley, Ray Davis, Braelon Allen, Bhayshul Tuten, Cam Skattebo, Trevor Etienne, Woody Marks, Jarquez Hunter, Dylan Sampson.

So, out of 28 running backs in this range, the names that stand out are Stevenson, Hubbard, Robinson, Irving, Marks, and Skattebo. Robinson is a backup, Stevenson, Hubbard, and Marks are lower-level committee backs, and that leaves Irving, who had a strong rookie season but was hurt last year, and Skattebo, who had a good first five games before getting hurt. So, almost no matter who the 49ers took, because they were targeting a running back in this range, it was not going to work.

San Francisco does not pick high enough to take a running back most years, so they need to wait until the latest rounds or sign a veteran moving forward.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/49ers/onsi as What 49ers Keep Getting Wrong When They Draft Running Backs.

This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM.