Photo courtesy of the San Francisco 49ers
Many are eager to see running back
Jerick McKinnon take the field for the San Francisco 49ers this season. That includes fans, coaches, and teammates.
Maybe not the Arizona Cardinals.
One of McKinnon's teammates who can't wait to see the running back finally step back onto the football field is
Raheem Mostert. Mostert has been with the 49ers during the entire Kyle Shanahan era and remembers what McKinnon was supposed to bring to the offense when the team signed him in 2018.
An ACL injury has prevented McKinnon from taking a regular-season snap with the 49ers, but that may change on Sunday. Mostert joined 95.7 The Game on Wednesday and discussed what McKinnon brings to Shanahan's offense.
"He adds a lot. He's very versatile coming out of the backfield, making plays," Mostert told Damon Bruce, Ray Ratto, and Matt Kolsky. "You can line him up at slot. His pass-catching is unbelievable, route-running. He works on those types of things, but then he's also transitioned to being a smooth runner.
"I remember the first year he got here; he knew the routes. He knew the route trees for the receivers and running backs, and he's perfecting that. But he didn't really have a full grasp as a runner."
Position coach Bobby Turner has been helping McKinnon to become an even better and more punishing running back. It must be paying off because there were training camp reports of
McKinnon embarrassing defenders during practices.
"I think, this year, he's definitely taken that role of being more of an elusive runner just to mix up the pace of the game," Mostert continued.
That could make an already deep group of running backs even more dangerous for opposing defenses. We'll see if that is true on Sunday when the 49ers host the Cardinals at Levi's Stadium.
In addition to Mostert and McKinnon, the 49ers also have
Tevin Coleman and
Jeff Wilson available to line up in the backfield.
McKinnon added: "There's three or four different guys -- even with Jeff Wilson -- there's four different guys in that backfield that can make something happen. You've just got to wait and see what we do. It's going to be exciting."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Mostert below.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters on Monday, the day after the team's 24-20 Week 1 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
On WR Deebo Samuel, what happened last week that changed your thinking from him being close to him being on IR and did he have a setback?
"Yeah, we didn't think it was a setback because he was just real sore after running one day, but the soreness never got better. It just got worse and worse after one specific day. Usually after one day when it was sore, we thought it was just because he worked it hard, but when that got worse each day and not better, we knew it ended up being a
Raheem Mostert looked as though he was ready to pick up right where he left off during his breakout performances in last season's playoff run. The running back was credited with 151 all-purpose yards on 15 rushing attempts and four receptions.
A significant chunk of that came from a 76-yard catch and run that featured Mostert reaching a speed of nearly 23 MPH, passing Arizona Cardinals defenders in the first quarter on the way to the end zone, giving San Francisco a 10-0 lead.
Raheem Mostert is gone in a flash for the
Raheem Mostert joined KNBR on Wednesday morning for a lengthy interview on the Murph & Mac show. The San Francisco 49ers running back knows that losing on Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals was a disappointment, but he and his teammates aren't dwelling on it.
"For me, personally, I think that game just kind of woke the beast up a little bit as far as where we want to go," Mostert said. "We've just got to take care of business this weekend, and handle what we can control, and go out there and try to get another win."
San Francisco begins a two-game road trip to face the New York Jets and New York Giants in back-to-back games at MetLife Stadium.
49ers fans will see a familiar face on the opposing sideline, as 16-year veteran running back
