The 49ers received excellent mileage from their 2017 draft class and this year’s version is shaping up to be nearly as dependable.
A notable blemish on their draft success: Joe Williams.
The team waived the running back on Friday after gambling 16 months ago that Williams, who conspicuously left his team for four games when he was at Utah, was worthy of a fourth-round pick. He was the first of the 19 picks coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch made over the last two years to get cut.
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Williams every so often flashed the burst and speed that caught Shanahan’s eye in the run-up to last year’s draft, including on a pair of 17-yard runs in the 2017 preseason opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.
But that proved to be his high-water mark. Williams was outworked last season by undrafted rookie Matt Breida before landing on season-long injured reserve with an ankle injury. And despite dropping more than 10 pounds this year, he couldn’t find much daylight in the most recent preseason. He carried the ball 19 times for a 2.4-yard average, then suffered a rib injury that knocked him out of the last two preseason games.
One of the characteristics of a Shanahan-run team: They don’t need to use a high draft picks on running backs.
Mike Shanahan’s successful Broncos teams of the late 1990s, for example, had an array of 1,000-yard runners — from Terrell Davis to Olandis Gary to Mike Anderson — who were mid-round picks but had the ability to make one cut and blast through openings for big gains.
Shanahan saw something similar in Williams, who ran the second fastest 40-yard dash among running backs at last year’s National Scouting Combine.
“He has the ability to make all the cuts, the ability to be a very good back in this league,” Shanahan said just after selecting Williams.
Lynch, meanwhile, initially was skeptical and didn’t have Williams’ name on the team’s early draft board.
“I was like, ‘uh uh — not interested,’” he told reporters during last year’s draft.
After all, Williams was kicked off the University of Connecticut football team in 2013 for using a teammate’s credit card. He also decided to step away from Utah for a month in 2016 before returning to the team and finishing the season with a flourish.
Williams said his absence was tied to the guilt he felt over his sister’s death a decade earlier. She died at age 7 due to an undiagnosed heart problem after she fell out of bed.
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“I didn’t act quickly enough, you know, with my parents or to call 9-1-1,” he said. “I always thought that it was my fault.”
The 49ers did plenty of research on the controversial runner, sending running backs coach Bobby Turner to meet with Williams before the draft. Lynch and Williams also had a number of conversations, and the general manager became reassured enough to trade ahead 22 spots to take Williams in the fourth round.
During the same draft, the 49ers traded a fourth-round pick to the Denver for running back Kapri Bibbs and a fifth-round selection. Bibbs didn’t make the team, though the 49ers used the fifth rounder on receiver Trent Taylor.
They also dealt their third-round choice that year to the New Orleans Saints who used it to select running back Alvin Kamara. Last year, Kamara ran for 728 yards, had another 826 receiving yards and scored 11 touchdowns. The 49ers received a second-round pick in return, which they used, in conjunction with a third-round pick, to move up to get receiver Dante Pettis. The 49ers also received a fifth-round pick in the Pettis transaction that was used on defensive back D.J. Reed.
Free-agent acquisition Jerick McKinnon and Breida — both of whom were limited to one preseason appearance this year — are the team’s top running backs heading into Week 1 with Raheem Mostert and Alfred Morris expected to be the backups.
NFL teams are required to reduce their rosters to 53 players by 1 p.m. Saturday. The 49ers got a head start on that process Friday by waiving or releasing 12 players, including veteran receiver Aldrick Robinson and rookie quarterback Jack Heneghan, who led two touchdown drives late in Thursday’s preseason finale.
They also traded a seventh-round pick in next year’s draft to the Cleveland Browns for tackle Shon Coleman. He was a third-round pick in 2016 out of Auburn who started 16 games last season at right tackle and who appears poised to be the team’s swing tackle this season.
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Coleman, 26, allowed six sacks, nine hits on the quarterback and 49 hurries, according to Pro Football Focus. The scouting service ranked him 59th out of 92 tackles with 61.4 overall grade.
Garry Gilliam was in the swing-tackle role entering training camp. However, he remains in the league’s concussion program after being injured on Aug. 9. The 49ers waived two others who had played tackle for them this offseason. The full list:
OL JP Flynn
RB Ja’Quan Gardner
G Chris Gonzalez
QB Jack Heneghan
DL Chris Jones
P Jeff Locke
T Pace Murphy
WR Aldrick Robinson
TE Wes Saxton
DL Will Sutton
OL Darrell Williams
RB Joe Williams
— Reported from Santa Clara
(Top photo: Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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