The Athletic's David Lombardi expects Trey Sermon to play the role Tevin Coleman previously held, when healthy in 2019.
25 July 2021
This would technically make Sermon the 49ers starting running back. However, San Fransisco ran a true running back by committee in 2019 with Coleman seeing a 42% snap share, Raheem Mostert at 36% and Matt Breida at 31%. Lombardi expects that Sermon will be used early in the game to help soften defenses, like Coleman was. Mostert, and perhaps others, are expected to see more work as the opposition wears down. Sermon projects to have a valuable role in 2021, but given Kyle Shanahan's backfield philosophy, it is unlikely that any 49ers running back is able to dominate snaps in 2021.