4 Running Backs Who Could Be This Year's Toby Gerhart

Carlos Hyde, San Francisco 49ers

Considering he played the majority of his rookie season behind Frank Gore in 2014, Carlos Hyde was fairly productive playing behind a road-grading offensive line, finishing with 333 yards and 4 scores on 83 carries.

But if we look closer at Hyde’s 2014 season using our Net Expected Points (NEP) metrics, the results weren’t nearly as positive.

Among the 30 running backs with between 50 and 100 carries last season, Hyde ranked 20th in Rushing NEP per carry and dead last in Reception NEP per target. Reggie Bush enters the fold as the clear favorite to see the majority of targets to running backs and may even cut into Hyde’s rushing workload as well.

No team has gone through a more tumultuous offseason personnel-wise than the 49ers. Injuries and retirements have hit the roster hard, including along the offensive line.

It’s difficult to predict anything regarding this team with any certainty, especially and offensive unit that has shown signs of struggle even when the rest of the team was relatively stable.

Even with Frank Gore now residing in Indianapolis, automatically assuming Hyde will exceed or even meet his current ADP of 4.05 is no sure thing.