Although the 49ers traded Jordan Mason in March and had changed their backfield makeup behind Christian McCaffrey, the Brian Robinson trade became an about-face of sorts. The All-Pro has a new backup.
Isaac Guerendo is a third-round pick who has three years left on his rookie contract, but the 2024 draftee has seen his role change shortly before the season. Robinson will be the 49ers’ primary backup, Kyle Shanahan said (via the San Jose Mercury News’ Cam Inman). Shanahan indicated this 49ers regime had been fans of Robinson coming out of Alabama.
The 49ers have been in need of backfield depth for years. The team has regularly lost starters — from Jerick McKinnon to Tevin Coleman to Raheem Mostert to McCaffrey — during Shanahan’s tenure. While McCaffrey stayed healthy after being acquired in 2022 and throughout his Offensive Player of the Year 2023 season, he missed most of 2024. That made the Mason trade somewhat surprising, but the 49ers used a third-round pick on Guerendo — who clocked a sub-4.4-second 40-yard dash time at the 2024 Combine.
Guerendo averaged 5.0 yards per carry in 16 games last season but had been battling a shoulder injury for a few weeks in training camp. Robinson, who recovered from gunshot wounds sustained just before his rookie season, had operated as the Commanders’ top running back for most of his rookie contract. But he was a Ron Rivera–Martin Mayhew draftee whom the current regime considered trading last year. The Adam Peters-run team then began shopping him in earnest this month, and after the 49ers and Commanders connected on the Deebo Samuel trade March 1, Robinson will take up Bay Area residency in a deal that sent a 2026 sixth-round pick to Washington.
Adding an important note on the pick, CardsWire’s Howard Balzer specifies it is a conditional selection. The conditions are not known, but it is not guaranteed the Commanders will fetch a sixth for their previous RB1. The 49ers have their own sixth-rounder that year in addition to Minnesota’s thanks to the Mason trade. Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area notes the Commanders will receive the lower of those two selections provided the conditions are met.
Guerendo will also presumably retain a role should McCaffrey go down, but he has been bumped down to the third-string level as a result of the trade. The speed back complementing Robinson’s between-the-tackles work would seemingly be San Francisco’s plan in the even CMC is hurt again, but Robinson will also see a significant role reduction — after 570 carries from 2022-24 — as a result of this trade.
No duh
Whats the over/under on how many weeks BRob makes it before getting hurt? There’s some thing in the water that the 49ers RBs have been drinking since Shanahan was hired that there is always a RB hurt. Even when CMC was healthy it was a revolving door of RB injuries to the backups.
There might be enough data to argue Kyle’s movement based system leaves legs more vulnerable but others are simply the game…. the long list of injuries is a bit out of control at this point.
Not surprised.
Coaches tend to view players differently than people on the internet -even people paid to talk about sports- do.
Robinson was better when healthy than his stats suggest, and clearly an actual coach can see that.
Agreed