When San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan jumped on KNBR this afternoon, he was immediately asked if his team had put out an ad for running backs yet. Shanahan laughed and responded, "We thought about it. It got pretty dire there for a little bit."
The 49ers lost several running backs during Sunday's win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Elijah Mitchell, Trey Sermon, and JaMycal Hasty all left the game with injuries. Mitchell returned, but only after the other two were sidelined.
The team was already without Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson. Hasty is expected to land on injured reserve. Mitchell is dealing with a knee injury and has not practiced this week.
Sermon is in the concussion protocol and has been limited during practices. The way things are trending, Sermon might be more likely to play than Mitchell. However, Shanahan hasn't dismissed the possibility of both his rookies being available.
"Elijah hasn't been out there [in practice] yet," Shanahan said on the Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks show. "I think he has the most outside chance. Hopefully, he'll get out there tomorrow, but we're waiting for the pain to go away, and we'll take that all the way up to Sunday if we have to in this situation.
"Trey, it's been great, just how bad of a hit he took on Sunday. I was real worried about it but throughout the protocols and stuff, it hasn't affected him as much as it seemed like. He had a real good day today. Hopefully, he'll get cleared by tomorrow."
There is a chance that Sermon is cleared from the concussion protocol by the end of the week, which would make him available against the Green Bay Packers.
Added Shanahan: "I think it's looking good with Trey Sermon. I think we'll find that out tomorrow. So hopefully, he'll be good enough to go."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.