For what seems like the past three seasons, fantasy owners and analysts have wanted to come up with the answer to “Who will be the next Frank Gore?”
There always seems to be a new back in San Francisco who will be ready to take over the majority of the carries from Gore as he gets older. Now with Gore at age 31, rookie Carlos Hyde is the new name to allegedly take over for Gore in fantasy.
Hyde’s case became even stronger with two huge injuries in the 49ers’ backfield to Kendall Hunter, who tore his ACL and will miss the entire season, and LaMichael James, who injured his left elbow in training camp.
James could return to action by Week 1, Taylor Price of 49ers.com reports, but with those two injuries, Hyde is the clear-cut backup to Gore. But like all the backup names who have been floated out there in the past when discussing Gore, Hyde shouldn’t be expected to be anything more than a very deep flex play this season.
In dynasty leagues, Hyde is a great rookie draft pick, because he’ll eventually take over the full-time starting role in San Francisco. But in standard re-draft leagues, I’m still far too much of a believer in Gore to draft Hyde and expect him to be anything except a handcuff.
Hyde will definitely get some touches in the offense this season — he can catch the ball out of the backfield as well as run defenders over with tremendous size and strength. But at least for this season, Gore will still be the No. 1 back in San Francisco, preventing Hyde from breaking in to the top 40 fantasy running backs.
Since Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach of the 49ers in 2011, the best a backup running back in San Francisco ever finished in fantasy was Hunter, who was 47th in total fantasy points among running backs during the 2011 season.
In 2012 and 2013, no 49ers’ backup running back finished inside the top 50.
Even last season, at 30, Gore was the 13th most consistent fantasy running back, according to our metrics (paid subscription required), and he was the fourth most consistent in 2012.
Because of Gore’s production, the 49ers haven’t had a need to bring anyone in. Gore’s attempts per game increased by over a carry between 2012 and last season, according to Pro-Football-Reference, and his yards per game average still was over 70, while scoring nine touchdowns.
Frank Gore stats | Year | Age | Y/G | A/G | TDs |
| 2010 | 27 | 77.5 | 18.5 | 3 |
| 2011 | 28 | 75.7 | 17.6 | 8 |
| 2012 | 29 | 75.9 | 16.1 | 8 |
| 2013 | 30 | 70.5 | 17.3 | 9 |
Last season, Colin Kaepernick even had more rushing attempts than Hunter and James combined, and during Hunter’s best fantasy season in 2011, Gore still had 170 more carries. I’d rather have Hyde than Hunter on any team, Hyde is just more talented.
But when making a prediction on Hyde, I just don’t see any reason why San Francisco would stop using Gore. He’s always been a consistent back, and Harbaugh doesn’t have a track record of running other backs that often.
While watching Gore on tape, he’s obviously not as explosive as he was in his earlier years, but he still has great awareness and can find any hole the 49ers’ offensive line give him — a unit that is one of the best in the league.
For the future, Hyde is certainly worth holding on to. But for this season, Gore will continue to be the consistent fantasy back he’s always been, and until I see otherwise on the field, I wouldn’t expect Hyde to put up anything more than Hunter-level numbers from the past two years.