Running back Brian Robinson has been a bright spot for the San Francisco 49ers offense the last couple of weeks with 94 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, but his breakout pair of games aren’t liable to alter how head coach Kyle Shanahan deploys his running backs.
As the touches pile up for 29-year-old RB Christian McCaffrey the questions about possibly limiting his workload have piled up with it. Through 10 games he is on pace for 423 touches − 84 more than he had in his Offensive Player of the Year campaign in 2023.
Lack of a capable backup has been one of the explanations for McCaffrey’s outsized share of the offensive snaps in the past, but the 49ers traded for Robinson before the season and gave the club a player capable of handling a lot of what McCaffrey can do offensively.
However, this season has proven just how valuable McCaffrey is individually to the 49ers’ offense, particularly because of what he can do as a pass catcher. He’s on pace for 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards again this season. Hitting both of those marks would make him the first player in NFL history to have two 1,000/1,000 seasons. McCaffrey has buoyed the 49ers’ offense for the entire season while injuries struck at wide receiver, tight end and quarterback.
Simply removing McCaffrey from the field isn’t something the 49ers are liable to do very often. There’s a reason he has played 84.2 percent of the offensive snaps and hasn’t played fewer than 74.6 percent of the snaps in a game this season. The 49ers need him on the field if they’re going to maximize their offense, and they haven’t opened enough margin for error to give McCaffrey a significant number of plays off.
One possible solution was virtually taken off the table by Shanahan on Wednesday. He was asked whether the McCaffrey and Robinson duo could play together to take advantage of McCaffrey’s receiving prowess. Shanahan explained that putting both talented players on the field at the same time presents possible issues for an offense.
“It depends how the defense plays it,” Shanahan said. “I mean, just them being on to same field, I’m thinking of the advantage of when you have two running backs and they go nickel all the time, that to me doesn’t mean you necessarily have two running backs. That means you have three receivers because now they’re going against all corners instead of linebackers and safeties. Which can give you advantage to run if one of your running backs wants to play fullback. So, we could do that, but just putting two runners out there because one’s good in the pass game, if they want to stay base and stuff and play us like we have a fullback in there, then that could be an advantage because now he’s out there having the advantage of a fullback being in the game, which means you’re going against the linebacker or safety. So, it really depends on how the defense would play it and they don’t tend to play us that way.”
The uptick in productivity for Robinson could lead to more consistent carries. He had zero in Weeks 6 and 8, but nine in Week 7. In the first five weeks his carries ranged from two to nine. That consistency is more likely to manifest in eight or nine carries than it is in a split workload where the 49ers give McCaffrey multiple drives off per game. He’s simply too important for what they do offensively, and if the pair isn’t going to coexist on the field together then there just aren’t going to be enough snaps for Robinson to be anything more than a bit player in the 49ers’ backfield.
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Will 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan play RB Brian Robinson more?
