49ers’ Kyle Shanahan responds to backlash San Francisco has received for NFL Draft decision originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The San Francisco 49ers had an interesting draft, with many suggesting that they reached on a few players. One of them was Kaelon Black, who was selected in the third round.
The 49ers seemingly have their running backs in place with Christian McCaffrey and others already on the roster, but it looks like they wanted the former Indiana standout, and there's reason to believe it can work out despite all of the questions about the decision.
Black, who rushed for 1,040 yards at Indiana, had a six-year college career. He's already 24 years old, and perhaps that had an impact on the decision. Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke about that move, offering more insight into why San Francisco went in that direction with its running back room.
“It always starts with me with just who’s the most natural running back. I love third-down backs, all the pass game stuff that people can bring, but when it just comes to running the ball, you need to have more than one starter,” Shanahan said of Black, per SB Nation.
“We’ve gone through a number of years here where we’ve been through at least four backs. Last year was one of the abnormal years where, and it was awesome, but our starting back was able to stay healthy.”
With all the injuries the 49ers have dealt with on both sides of the football over the past few years, including multiple to McCaffrey, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anybody that the team went with a running back in the third round.
It might have been an interesting decision for this team, but Black is a good player and will hopefully have a nice and long career in the NFL for San Francisco.
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