SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Shanahan name has, for many years, been the equivalent of a curse word for long-time fantasy football players -- those who light up at the potential of running backs on Shanahan teams but find themselves exasperated by a steadfast refusal to commit to one of them.
For years in Denver, Mike Shanahan drove fantasy footballers nuts with his changes at running back from week to week. For every couple of years with a Terrell Davis or Clinton Portis you could bank on, there was a season with the likes of Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell, Reuben Droughns and others emerging out of nowhere, sharing carries and producing.
In San Francisco, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has some wondering if he's going to take after his father's game of musical running backs. On Sunday, Shanahan went away from starting running back Carlos Hyde for a big chunk of the second half in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts. By that time that game was through, undrafted rookie Matt Breida had played 35 snaps to Hyde's 33, leaving those who have invested in Hyde asking whether it was time to sell him and roll with Breida.
On Monday afternoon, Kyle Shanahan was asked whether he envisioned Hyde and Breida sharing carries moving forward?
"I do," Shanahan said. "I mean, I plan on going with Carlos early, and I plan on spelling him with Breida regardless, whether he's doing good or bad. Or even when he is doing good. But, Breida had a real good week of practice. We weren't out there as much as we wanted, especially early in the game, and we ended up just going with the hot hand. We felt like Breida was going better at the time. I think they ended up, I think it was like 35 plays to 33 plays, so it was pretty even. That's how it played out in that game. But, I think it'll be a different story each week.”
In other words, the potential for more fantasy frustration figures to continue well into the future. With that in mind, let's try to make some sense of where things stand in the 49ers backfield right now and where it might be going in the future.
From Hyde's perspective, it's important to remember that Sunday's game was really the first time he hasn't produced all season. He entered the game sixth in the league in rushing yards and had earned plaudits from Shanahan and general manager John Lynch for showing up to training camp in the best shape of his career.
However, Hyde was clearly not as effective Sunday as he'd been in the first quarter of the season. He rushed for 11 yards on eight carries and had a pair of miscues early in the second half that contributed to Breida getting more work.
On the Niners' first drive of the third quarter, Hyde mishandled a pitch from quarterback Brian Hoyer on second-and-4 for a 6-yard loss. The next play, Hyde was left in to help with pass protection and failed to pick up linebacker Jeremiah George, who broke through and helped bring down Hoyer to force a punt with a little more than 13 minutes to go in the quarter.
From there, Hyde was mostly missing in action until late in regulation and didn't get another touch until there were about two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
"It all plays into it," Shanahan said. "Coaches are trying to decide fast in the heat of battle who you want to go with. I've got a lot of confidence in both of them. ... I feel we've got good backs on this team. But, the problem is you only get to hand the ball off to one of them. I would love for each guy to get 25 carries every game, and hopefully someday we’ll do that. If we are, it means things are going very well.
"But, you're only going to get so many opportunities, so when you do get that hole you've got to decide who's in there, and Hyde had a couple bad plays, but nothing to make too big a deal about. But, we put Breida in and he was almost a shoestring away (from long touchdown runs) on two tackles, and we thought if we kept him in, eventually he'd get one. He didn't, but we thought he was pretty close.”
After the game, Hyde was unhappy with missing as much of Sunday's game and said the oblique injury he suffered in Week 3 was not a factor in Breida getting more chances. On Monday, Shanahan acknowledged that Hyde's pair of mistakes played a part in going to Breida and said he didn't feel the need to talk to Hyde further about it. He also pointed to Breida's effectiveness as the reason he got more time, referring to it as going with the "hot hand."
Indeed, Breida did seem to give the Niners a spark. He finished with 49 yards on 10 carries and three receptions for 22 yards. He played a key role on both of their fourth-quarter touchdown drives to get the game to overtime. At 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Breida gives the 49ers a smaller, speedier alternative to the more physical Hyde.
But Breida is also not yet ready to claim Hyde's job on a permanent basis. To be sure, this isn't necessarily a phasing out of Hyde so much as it is taking advantage of the chance to get Breida more involved when he's had a taste of success.
Moving forward, expect Hyde to continue to start with Breida getting his share of opportunities.
"Hyde is who I expect to be out there, and nothing has changed with that," Shanahan said. "But, it depends on the fronts we're going against, what personnel we want in, the type of practice, the week of practice, how it's looked. And that really goes for all positions. But, I definitely see Hyde as our first guy and Breida spelling him and Raheem (Mostert) after that.”
And if one has more success than the other, it's reasonable to expect that player to get more chances, regardless of standing on the depth chart.