San Francisco 49ers Backup RB Hunter Out for Season, Is Door Open for LaMichael James?
(UPDATE) NFL Training Camp Not Kind to San Francisco Running Backs, LaMichael James Dislocates Elbow on Sunday, Out for a Month
The 2014 season in the NFL starts in a few months and NFL Training Camps are now open. In the first high profile injury reported in camp San Francisco Backup Running Back Kendall Hunter has a torn ACL and will likely be lost for the season. The report from Sports Illustrated says Hunter was in the final year of his contract, signed in 2011. In three years with the team he has rushed for just over twelve hundred yards and seven touchdowns. The Running Back position in San Francisco in recent years has consisted of Frank Gore and a staple of capable backups. Entering the 2014 season Gore is the starter. With Hunter going down to injury where does that put former Oregon Ducks Running Back LaMichael James on the depth chart?
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Will James have the chance to see the field more in 2014? In 2013 he saw time as a Running Back and also as a returner. San Francisco has drafted players they hope to be contributors for 2014 including Marcus Lattimore who spent last year off the field following a devastating injury in college – he is now 100%. The team that lost the NFC Championship game to Seattle also picked up Carlos Hyde from Ohio State in the most recent NFL Draft.
Hyde and Lattimore are expected to compete for the number two spot behind Gore in 2014. I am sure that James will also be a part of that conversation.
Last season, his second with San Francisco, James carried the ball 12 times for 59 yards and returned the ball for two hundred fifty one yards on punts and seven hundred thirty eight yards on kickoffs.
The San Francisco 49ers are expected to compete for the Super Bowl in 2014 and start the season travelling to Dallas to face the Cowboys on Sunday, September 7th. The game is set for a 10:25am Pacific Time kickoff on FOX.
LaMichael James(NFL Stats)
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