David Lombardi of The Athletic published an impressive article detailing the San Francisco 49ers' spending habits and how the team spends its salary cap money, per position. One of the interesting tidbits included the fact that the 49ers have devoted more salary cap money to the running back position than any other team in the league.
That certainly makes sense, if you consider how effective the 49ers rushing attack was and how they utilized their running backs. San Francisco ranked No. 2 in the league in rushing, averaging 144.1 yards per game last season. Only the Baltimore Ravens averaged more, with much of that coming from quarterback Lamar Jackson. If you exclude his contributions, the 49ers actually rank No. 1.
Raheem Mostert led the team in rushing with 772 yards, an impressive 5.6 yards per carry, and eight rushing touchdowns. Tevin Coleman matched Mostert's 137 carries but amassed 228 fewer yards. Matt Breida was up there with 123 carries for 623 rushing yards.
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Despite Mostert having a breakout season and clearly being the featured back among the group, he didn't officially start a single game last season, including the postseason. While he may not have been out there on the first play of any game, his workload clearly shows that he became the 49ers' go-to guy.
San Francisco ranks No. 1 in the NFL in running back spending, devoting $21.6 million to the position this year. As Lombardi points out, the per-team league average for running backs is $10 million.
So I headed over to Spotrac.com, which has nicely compiled the NFL positional spending data into a user-friendly format. Below is where the 49ers rank in spending at each position, and the league average.
Quarterbacks
Spending, 2020 cap hit: $28.5 million (ranked No. 6)
NFL average: $18.8 million
Running backs
Spending: $21.6 million (No. 1)
NFL average: $10 million
Wide receivers
Spending: $15.6 million (No. 27)
NFL average: $23.2 million
Tight ends
Spending: $3.6 million (No. 30)
NFL average: $9.4 million
Offensive line
Spending: $34.5 million (No. 23)
NFL average: $37.5 million
Defensive line
Spending: $46.9 million (No. 6)
NFL average: $32.7 million
Linebackers
Spending: $10.1 million (No. 27)
NFL average: $23.4 million
Defensive backs
Spending: $39.3 million (No. 8)
NFL average: $31.4 million
Specialists
Spending: $7 million (No. 9)
NFL average: $5.6 million