It's no secret the San Francisco 49ers have had all sorts of injury issues during training camp, a few of which have come at the running back position.
Ameer Abdullah (ribs) and Patrick Taylor Jr. (shoulder) have been lost to season-ending injuries. And undrafted rookie Corey Kiner was waived/injured after suffering a severe high-ankle sprain and was subsequently reverted to injured reserve once he cleared waivers.
When Christian McCaffrey, who's missed 37 of a possible 84 regular-season games over the last five years and appeared in just four contests for San Francisco a season ago, is your healthiest running back, you know things aren't going your way. McCaffrey being healthy to start the 2025 campaign is obviously great news for the Niners, but given his history, it's always important to build up the depth chart behind him.
With what's gone down recently, San Francisco obviously needed to make a move and did just that on Friday, engaging in another trade with the Washington Commanders to acquire Brian Robinson Jr., who was his now-former team's top back in each of the last three seasons. A third-round pick in 2022, the Alabama alum has racked up 2,329 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground in his first three pro campaigns, adding another 587 yards and five scores on 65 receptions.
Now, it's extremely easy to say the 49ers won this trade, as all general manager John Lynch was forced to give up was a sixth-round selection in the 2026 draft. And with Washington paying part of Robinson's $3.406 million base salary, the move looks even better.
But even beyond those two things, there are additional benefits to this trade.
49ers won the Brian Robinson trade in multiple ways
For one, if Robinson, who is in the final year of his rookie deal, signs elsewhere next spring when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, there's a good chance San Francisco would receive a decent compensatory pick. And even if it comes in the later rounds, it still offsets the pick the organization just gave up.
Looking at things on the field, Robinson is obviously good enough to take some of the pressure off of McCaffrey, who simply might not be able to make it through an entire season without sufficient rest. Again, Robinson is good but he hasn't yet been great in this league, as the Commanders never truly maximized his potential.
So, where the Niners (and Robinson himself) also win here is that head coach Kyle Shanahan, arguably more so than any other head coach in the NFL, consistently gets the most out of his running backs, which makes sense, seeing as his dad did the same back in the day.
Since Shanahan took over as the head coach in the Bay Area in 2017, the Niners have had 10 different backs rush for at least 100 yards in a game. Only the Baltimore Ravens have had more in that stretch.
Just last year, with McCaffrey on the shelf to start the season, Shanahan handed the rushing reins to Jordan Mason, who exploded out of the gate with a 147-yard performance in a Week 1 win over the New York Jets and also hit the century mark in two of the next three games.
Patrick Taylor Jr., who rushed for a combined 261 yards in his first three pro seasons with the Green Bay Packers, also hit the mark, rushing for a career-high 109 yards in the Niners' season finale against the Los Angeles Rams.
Shanahan's number would be 11, but Isaac Guerendo fell just short in Week 6 with a 99-yard outing against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6.
Going back a few years, look at what he did for a guy like Raheem Mostert, who had eight combined carries in his first three NFL seasons. But after Shanahan got his hands on him, Mostert became the only player with 200 rushing yards and four touchdown runs in a game in NFL postseason history, rushing for 220 yards and four scores in the Niners' 37-20 win over the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFC Championship game.
Trust me; I could keep going. But the simple point is that Shanahan knows what he's doing when it comes to running backs.
And it's not as if Robinson is some unestablished talent in the way Mason was a season ago. He's a proven commodity and is going to do nothing but get better under Shanahan's tutelage.
So, if McCaffrey goes down again or simply needs a rest, the 49ers are in far better shape than they were a couple of days ago.
That's a win.
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