As pointed out by the Sacramento Bee's Matt Barrows, a San Francisco 49er is leading all rushers in the preseason for the fifth straight season (woo hoo!), but the team still hasn't come up with who will be Frank Gore's backup yet.
Kendall Hunter has 174 rushing yards through the first three weeks of the preseason, leading the Redskins Roy Helu by a yard. Seniority favors Anthony Dixon to be the second string RB, but his numbers haven't been as impressive as Hunter's thus far, and has talked about moving to fullback already this season. Hopefully once the regualr season comes Frank can be the workhorse he's been his entire career in San Francisco, but the Niners need a change-up back to keep Gore fresh and the defenses they face honest. Here's what Barrows had to say about the battle for the backup:
It's a bit counter intuitive given their relative sizes, but Hunter has been the better north-south tailback while Dixon has been too indecisive and too apt to break runs to the outside. I asked Jim Harbaugh on Sunday whether Hunter had moved ahead of Dixon on the depth chart. He said that battle is ongoing. Hunter also said he hadn't heard when he will get into today's preseason finale.
Look for both men to have a similar amount of snaps during the Niners matchup down in San Diego, as both got eight apiece in last week's loss to the Texans. Hunter ran for 40 yards in his time on the field while Dixon only managed 15,
For more discussion and analysis of the 49ers, mosey on over to Niners Nation to get in on the action!