The 49ers may have found the running back they didn’t know they needed.
When Alfred Morris was a free agent this offseason, the 49ers signed Jerick McKinnon instead.
Morris is a veteran running back who played for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan from 2012 to 2013. In 2017, he played for the Dallas Cowboys. McKinnon is a career backup who played the first four seasons of his career with the Minnesota Vikings. Despite his lack of starting experience, the 49ers made McKinnon the sixth-highest paid running back in the league in terms of average annual salary.
Now, McKinnon is injured, and Morris is the 49ers’ starting running back — they signed him Aug.