San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with the media on Tuesday and said he isn't ruling out the possibility of keeping four running backs on the 53-man roster. The top two backs will undoubtedly be Jerick McKinnon and Matt Breida. Neither will play again during the preseason. McKinnon is dealing with a calf injury while Breida separated his shoulder during the 49ers' first exhibition game.
"Definitely [keeping four running backs is] a possibility," Shanahan said on Tuesday. "Going extra at a number of positions is a possibility. There's definitely four running backs on our roster that we like, but we have that at a lot of positions and stuff. That's why it's going to be tough to get to this 53."
Behind the one-two punch of McKinnon and Breida are names like Joe Williams, Raheem Mostert, Jeremy McNichols, and the newly added Alfred Morris. All are fighting for that coveted third running back spot.
Williams sustained a rib fracture and a "very bad" bruise during Saturday night's preseason loss to the Houston Texans. The injury may have cost him a spot on the 53-man roster. He is expected to be out until "at least" Week 1, Shanahan said on Sunday.
The possibility of keeping more than three running backs on the roster bodes well for the others — especially Morris, who joined the team a week ago. He did not play on Saturday night, but that might not be the case for the team's upcoming game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"He wanted to go (in Houston), and we could have thrown him in, but there's only so many handoffs you can give people," Shanahan said. "He had two practices this year, and if it would have played out differently, we would have put him in, but we wanted to take a look at the other guys. We thought we gave Jeremy a real good look.
"I think Alf is a little more ready this week, which is fair to him, and I plan on him getting more looks this week than he did last week."