49ers find needed balance in run game with McCaffrey, Black

MELBOURNE, Australia -- More than halfway through the second quarter of Thursday's win over the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel could feel things turning in his team's direction.

The Niners were midway through an 86-yard scoring drive, and rookie running back Kaelon Black had just ripped off gains of 9 and 5 yards. From midfield, Brendel turned toward coach Kyle Shanahan on the sideline and waved his arms to suggest he wanted to run the ball, run it again and keep running it until the Rams showed they could at least slow it down.

"After a few of those good chunk run plays hit, I'm looking right at Kyle, 'Let's go,'" Brendel said. "Let's just keep going. Let's keep dialing them up."

Shanahan apparently agreed with Brendel's assessment. The success of those plays only yielded more runs, and by the end of San Francisco's 27-7 win, it had 30 attempts for arobust 5.8 yards per rush. That would've been the team's second-best outing for the 2025 season (behind its 5.9 against the Bears in Week 17).

Perhaps more important was how the 49ers got back to their bread and butter. Since trading for Christian McCaffreyin October 2022, Shanahan has explored finding a legitimate complement to the team's RB1 before either eschewing the idea completely or giving up after potential options failed to produce. Though the Ninersonly have a one-game sample size, the early returns indicate that Black might be the powerful complement they've long sought next to McCaffrey.

"I thought they both ran really hard and really well," Shanahan said. "That was the goal for us coming into this, trying to balance it out more."

When McCaffrey is healthy, balance has not been the word anyone would use to describe the 49ers' distribution of carries. The Melbourne game marked the first time a Niner had more rushing attempts (Black had 14) than McCaffrey (10) in a game he started and finished since the 2022 divisional playoffs against the Dallas Cowboys. Black had only one reception compared to McCaffrey's four, but that left them with an even split of 15 touches each for70 and 88 yards, respectively.

Black's extensive snaps came as a result of design and a bit because of McCaffrey dealing with cramps during the game, but Black earning such a role after missing a chunkof training camp with an adductor injury speaks volumes for the 24-year-old third-round pick. Especially given the 49ers' recent history of draft misses at the position in the middle rounds.

"[Black is] a force and he's someone who's going to help our team a whole lot,"McCaffrey said. "It was really cool to see him go out there and just do what he does."

Equally encouraging for the 49ers was that the 1-2 punch got off to a strong start after a disappointing 2025 season on the ground. Last season, the 49ers averaged just 3.8 yards per carry (30th in the NFL), 106.9 yards per game (24th) and 2.04 yards before contact per carry (29th). The yards per carry and yards before contact marks were the worst in a single season since Shanahan took over in 2017-- and that was with McCaffrey for all 17 games.

In addition to a more balanced attack, the 49ers also showed creativity with their play design under new run game coordinator Joe Graves. San Francisco threw a variety of motions, includingsome that allowed fullback Kyle Juszczykto lead block for McCaffrey or Black. The 49ers motioned players on 59% of their offensive plays, the highest rate in any game under Shanahan. They averaged 6.3 yards per rush on 20 attempts using any form of motion.

San Francisco also took advantage of a schematic curveball from the Rams. According to Brendel, the Niners spent the week preparing for plenty of five-man fronts -- similar to what Los Angeles threw at them in recent matchups. Brendel was surprised when the Rams not only played four down linemen more frequently but were also often in nickel packages (five defensive backs).

On 16 attempts against four or fewer man fronts, the Niners averaged 6.6 yards per attempt. Against nickel and dime (six DBs) looks, San Francisco averaged 6.5 yards per carry.

"The way that they chose to play us on defense schematically we weren't really expecting," Brendel said. "Most teams are a little bit more scared of our wide zone and our run game."

As the 49ers continued having rushing success in Melbourne, the offensive line could sense an opportunity to impose its will. In the third quarter, the team averaged 8.4 yards per attempt against the road-weary Rams.

It was the perfect storm for what the 49ers hope is a reestablishment of their previous levels of dominance on the ground.

"We felt it from the jump," right tackle Colton McKivitz said. "I definitely think our plan helped us being down here a week and getting our legs. ... We were kind of called out last year for not being a good running team. And this is a good start for us.

"Obviously, it's Week 1 ... but when you can start with that number of rushing yards against a good defensive front, against a rival, it shows we're going in the right direction."