LaMichael James is a Niner

This is a Walsh-esk pick by Harbaugh. Similar to Walsh marveled at the gutsy performance by Jeff Garcia against his Stanford team in a bowl. Picked up Garcia years later in Canada. Harbaugh witnessed his Stanford team got burned by James. So here's James on the Niners.

Originally posted by socalniner:
Another weapon! Can't have too many of those. Spells adios for Dixon

Why? They are a completely different type of back. But now we have 4 RB's on the roster behind Gore, and none of them are a full time fill-in if Gore goes down, and none are a long term replacement for Gore.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by susweel:
Kiper says he's up 195 now.

Hunter is 199. 5'6". James 5'8" - 5'9" 195 lbs. They are about the same with James actually being slightly bigger and better college production although Hunter was real productive in college too.

Hunter is built more like an NFL RB than James is. James is extremely smallish. Being 5'6'' and 199 is actually good size for a RB and I'm sure Hunter is over 200 by now.

I don't dislike the pick...I just don't expect him to be a true RB like Gore/Hunter were for us.

He's gonna be a "lets get him the ball in space" guy...a better version of Dexter McCluster.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Leathaface:

He won't replace Gore as RB1 or Hunter as RB2.

He'll have a role, but it won't primarily be as a RB.

I think he can easily replace Hunter in the long term as #2 RB. He's faster and more productive and even slightly bigger. Not sure he will as a rookie.

James is probably slightly faster and had slightly better stats (1600-1700 with 17-21 TDs compared to Hunter's two 1500 yard 16 TD seasons), but I'd say Hunter is arguably quicker actually. Overall, Hunter is much thicker/bigger in terms of muscle than him. The big difference is Kendall is a rock solid blocker, and that's where he has James and why I believe he'll remain the #2. James is a great Sproles type. Hunter is a potential starting back still in my mind, similar to the Ray Rice mold. Hunter came in with almost identical measurables to Rice.

Comparing the players combine performances:

Kendall Hunter
Weigh-in: 5-7 199
40 time: 4.46
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'02"
Shuttle: 4.21
3-Cone: 6.74
Bench reps: 24


LaMichael James
Weigh-in: 5-8 194
40 time: 4.45
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'03"
Shuttle: 4.12
3-Cone: 6.88
Bench reps: 15

Originally posted by Jcool:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Why is James forty time so slow? Dudes not even faster than Gore was coming out of college.

Frank Gore: 40 Time: 4.65

LaMichael James: 40 Time: 4.45

The midget back field ?

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Leathaface:
He won't replace Gore as RB1 or Hunter as RB2.

He'll have a role, but it won't primarily be as a RB.

I think he can easily replace Hunter in the long term as #2 RB. He's faster and more productive and even slightly bigger. Not sure he will as a rookie.

James is probably slightly faster and had slightly better stats (1600-1700 with 17-21 TDs compared to Hunter's two 1500 yard 16 TD seasons), but I'd say Hunter is arguably quicker actually. Overall, Hunter is much thicker/bigger in terms of muscle than him. The big difference is Kendall is a rock solid blocker, and that's where he has James and why I believe he'll remain the #2. James is a great Sproles type. Hunter is a potential starting back still in my mind, similar to the Ray Rice mold. Hunter came in with almost identical measurables to Rice.

Comparing the players combine performances:

Kendall Hunter
Weigh-in: 5-7 199
40 time: 4.46
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'02"
Shuttle: 4.21
3-Cone: 6.74
Bench reps: 24


LaMichael James
Weigh-in: 5-8 194
40 time: 4.45
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'03"
Shuttle: 4.12
3-Cone: 6.88
Bench reps: 15

Hunter ran a 4.53 at the combine. James is much faster than his combine time and was clocked at 24mph by ESPN.

Originally posted by susweel:
The midget back field ?

Did you notice Kendall Hunter still wears a backpack after games?

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
James is probably slightly faster and had slightly better stats (1600-1700 with 17-21 TDs compared to Hunter's two 1500 yard 16 TD seasons), but I'd say Hunter is arguably quicker actually. Overall, Hunter is much thicker/bigger in terms of muscle than him. The big difference is Kendall is a rock solid blocker, and that's where he has James and why I believe he'll remain the #2. James is a great Sproles type. Hunter is a potential starting back still in my mind, similar to the Ray Rice mold. Hunter came in with almost identical measurables to Rice.

Comparing the players combine performances:

Kendall Hunter
Weigh-in: 5-7 199
40 time: 4.46
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'02"
Shuttle: 4.21
3-Cone: 6.74
Bench reps: 24


LaMichael James
Weigh-in: 5-8 194
40 time: 4.45
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'03"
Shuttle: 4.12
3-Cone: 6.88
Bench reps: 15

Kendall can put up them reps

something that I think is incredibly telling about the selection of James over other running backs.

VP of Player Personel Tom Gamble personally attended both Oregon and Washington pro-days and paid specific attention to James and Polk respectively. What does it say that we picked James, the slender, speedster, with an attitude over the bigger, between the tackles, brawler of Polk?

Think about that just as it was with AJ Jenkins vs Fleener, Hill and Randle - we chose James over Turbin and Polk.I'm so excited to see what James does in a 9er uniform.

Originally posted by Thorhawk:
Hunter ran a 4.53 at the combine. James is much faster than his combine time and was clocked at 24mph by ESPN.

It's too bad that he was ranked 26th out of all RB's in this year's draft by the experts.

Originally posted by susweel:
The midget back field ?

Typically you don't want a tall RB unless he's one of those bowling-ball runningbacks like hillis or something, it makes it easier for linebackers and the secondary to spot them behind o-linemen. At 5'6 hunter basically can hide behind those guys haha. 5'9 isn't short at all but he is lightweight.

Let's see some split-back formation screens with Hunter and James. Never know which way we'll go to get it flying down the field.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
James is probably slightly faster and had slightly better stats (1600-1700 with 17-21 TDs compared to Hunter's two 1500 yard 16 TD seasons), but I'd say Hunter is arguably quicker actually. Overall, Hunter is much thicker/bigger in terms of muscle than him. The big difference is Kendall is a rock solid blocker, and that's where he has James and why I believe he'll remain the #2. James is a great Sproles type. Hunter is a potential starting back still in my mind, similar to the Ray Rice mold. Hunter came in with almost identical measurables to Rice.

Comparing the players combine performances:

Kendall Hunter
Weigh-in: 5-7 199
40 time: 4.46
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'02"
Shuttle: 4.21
3-Cone: 6.74
Bench reps: 24


LaMichael James
Weigh-in: 5-8 194
40 time: 4.45
Vertical: 35
Broad jump: 10'03"
Shuttle: 4.12
3-Cone: 6.88
Bench reps: 15

As far as the Rice comparison, I just find it amazing that hunter posted better stats than rice did his rookie year. Very similar amount of carries(100ish), similar yards(400ish), but Hunter had those two touchdowns, rice had zero his rookie year. I know it means nothing if he doesn't improve on those numbers and probably gain some muscle this offseason too, but it's still eerie how close the stats were lol.

dont know if this has been posted but this will get u excited if your not already hes plenty fast with pads on