Why the 49ers Gave up on Isaac Guerendo for Brian Robinson Jr.

"I don't think that he's gotten lost. I just think he's competing," Shanahan said. "He was the third back last year and then a couple guys got hurt and he got an opportunity and I thought he did well with his opportunity. But that didn't mean he was the first or second back all of a sudden. He had to come into camp and still compete with guys and he got hurt really early and missed a lot of time to compete.

"We brought Brian in. We've studied him over his career and based off of that we put him ahead of him (Guerendo). And that's how we are starting out and we'll see how it goes throughout the year."

Shanahan essentially is saying that Guerendo couldn't show them anything because he was hurt. And once he got hurt again with a shoulder injury, the 49ers finally realized he's unreliable.

Guerendo has constantly gotten dinged up with an injury since the 49ers drafted him. Rather than continuing to hope he can stay healthy and prove his worth, the 49ers moved on.

Luckily, Robinson was available and the 49ers were able to get him installed. I'm sure the 49ers are also kicking themselves over trading Jordan Mason too.

The injury to Jordan James hurt too because the 49ers couldn't use him as the backup to McCaffrey. Despite what Shanahan say, Guerendo is lost in the shuffle.

The only way he's seeing the field is if McCaffrey and/or Robinson miss time due to injury. Not even that's a guarantee. Shanahan may want James to get the opportunity instead.

Until that happens, Guerendo is a special teams player going forward.

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