The San Francisco 49ers signed running back Alfred Morris after Jerick McKinnon sustained a calf strain during practice. Naturally, the assumption was that he was brought in because of the injuries at the position. The 49ers were already without Matt Breida, who injured his shoulder during last week's exhibition opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
Neither McKinnon nor Breida is expected to get much more work in before San Francisco's season opener in Minnesota on September 9. The Morris signing made sense. After all, the former Washington Redskin and Dallas Cowboy is familiar with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who was the offensive coordinator in Washington when Morris was drafted.
It turns out, discussions about potentially signing Morris were already being thrown around even before McKinnon's injury. The former is a very different type of runner than the latter. In fact, Morris is a different type of player when compared to any other running back on San Francisco's roster. That's exactly what made him so attractive to Shanahan and company.
"We know we're not going to have [McKinnon or Breida] until Week 1, and so we needed to get some extra legs in here just to help us get through this, which Alf helps," Shanahan said on Thursday during a KNBR interview. "But we were going to bring in Alf before that happened with Jerick. We kind of were talking to him the day before that and had him coming in. And then Jerick got hurt the next day, which made it a necessity.
"We wanted to get Alf in here because we just thought all of our guys are pretty similar. We've got a number of explosive backs. Some guys, if they're given a hole, they've got the speed and stuff to take it the distance. But I felt like all of our guys are very similar.
"If our starting two guys are going to be speed guys who can do some stuff in the pass game and can make some big plays, I also wanted to have an option of having a guy that can handle carries, can handle getting beat up a lot, get the hard yards versus some really good defenses.
"We knew Alf was out there, and we needed the numbers too. And we wanted to give him a chance before this is all said and done to at least come in here and compete with other guys to have a chance to make this team."
During the interview, Shanahan also discussed the heat in Houston, the need for versatile players on the back end of the roster, wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, cornerback Richard Sherman, and the benefits of the joint practices with the Houston Texans.
You can listen to the entire interview with Shanahan below.