If you’re an avid follower of Roto Street Journal, you’d know by now that we are obsessed with Kyle Shanahan’s zone running scheme and his ability to bread league-winners. Now, with former 49ers OC Mike McDaniel calling the shots for the Dolphins, it looks like he found his RB1 after the team signed former Cardinals’ RB Chase Edmonds. McDaniel, who’s seen the running back twice a year in the NFC West, gave Edmonds a 2-year, $12.6M ($6.1M guaranteed).
The Cardinals primarily deployed Edmonds as a third-down back, but he shined at times when given lead-back opportunities. In his two games without James Conner last season, Edmonds averaged 19.95 PPR points per game — highlighted by a 26.7 PPR effort. Edmonds was also able to take advantage of Kenyan Drake’s inconsistencies and injury issues in 2020. The young runner totaled 850 total yards and five touchdowns while averaging 5.7 yards per carry.
While Edmonds is a great receiving back, there are some questions about his ability to carry a workload. As noted above, he’s carried the load in a few games, but he’s never put it together a full season as the man. The Cardinals either had Drake or Conner around the goal-line and on early downs. Now, the Dolphins will likely use Myles Gaskin or find one in the draft to be the team’s goal-line back.
But in the likely event that he’s 1A, he’s destined to shine in Shanahan’s scheme — where McDaniel was the run game coordinator from 2017 to 2020 and the offensive coordinator in 2021.
Since 2017, the 49ers’ running game has churned out:
- 2021: 499 carries; 2,166 rush yds; 22 touchdowns
- 2020: 437 carries; 1,889 rush yds; 19 touchowns
- 2019: 498 carries; 2,305 rush yds; 23 touchdowns
- 2018: 423 carries; 1,902 rush yds; 7 touchdowns (awful team)
- 2017: 408 carries; 1,662 rush yds; 15 touchdowns
SUMMARY
Edmonds received starting running back or at least RB1A money from the Dolphins. Thus, expect RB2 production if he sticks at the top of the team’s depth chart, or high-end RB3 numbers if they upgrade Gaskin. Either way, keep tabs on our 2022 NFL Free Agency live blog and The Wolf’s 2022 Fantasy Football Rankings to see where the newly minted free agents land.
