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Deshaun Foster to the 49ers?

By David Fucillo

Courtesty ESPN

In keeping with the Combine spirit Sven is showing a can-do attitude in finding the Deshaun Foster to the 49ers rumor and showing some good skills going forward!  I'm hijacking his breaking news to throw out some more info on Deshaun Foster and bring the conversation to the front page.  I'm awaiting a potential scouting report on Foster, but in the meantime I thought I'd throw out the Scouts Inc. scouting report, along with my own thoughts.  

Foster is explosive, fast and powerful. He is competitive and always battles for extra yards after contact. He has the speed to turn the corner and go the distance. He attacks the line and has the acceleration to press the hole. He has outstanding vision and burst, and can be productive on cutback runs . . . He runs with good leg drive, balance and toughness, and is difficult to bring down with one defender. He has good hands and is dangerous after the catch. He is a stout and steady pass blocker who can take on power and speed rushers. But Foster is prone to injuries and some costly mistakes. He must prove his durability to realize his potential as an NFL feature back. He can be impatient when running downhill. He has ball-security issues in space and between the tackles.

Sven makes a good point in worrying about Frank Gore's knees.  Six years ago, Foster left UCLA as a world of potential with injury issues.  Since then he's remained a lot of potential and a lot of injuries.  He maxed out at 897 yards and three touchdowns 2 season ago.  He's been splitting time with DeAngelo Williams and even though Williams was on the smaller side of the platoon, his yards per carry has been consistently better than Foster.

The good news is that Foster is clearly going to be the second banana and if he doesn't know that, well he's a little delusional.  I'm a big Michael Robinson fan, but Foster would provide a safe backup with more upside than Maurice Hicks.  Hicks was always a decent little option, but if Gore went down, the 49ers would be screwed.  Foster provides enough upside that if the worst case scenario happened, the 49ers would not be completely screwed.  

With over $28 million in cap space (MM expects us to use $20 million), it's worth throwing some money at this problem.  I'm curious to see what kind of deal comes out of this but I can't imagine it's for a ton of money since this is a backup position.  Nonetheless, if a deal does in fact get done, the 49ers will definitely have improved themselves in one area of need, which is all you can ask for in the offseason (well improving, not just in one area).

Anyways, thanks again to Sven for spotting this.

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