Matt Breida and Alfred Morris will need to carry more of the bulk of the yardage
One term that will be thrown around is the “Garoppolo effect.” It’s something that’s about when the Eastern Illinois product was put into the starting lineup that made everybody better.
This especially went with the run game, as the average rushing yards per game went from 99.9 to 112.6. Not to mention an improvement in Matt Breida’s game last season. In just the five games that Garoppolo started, Breida put together 234 rushing yards which were 50.3 percent of his 2017 total.
This production continued into this year as he’s now tied as the leader in rushing yards with 274 yards in just three games. Couple this in with Morris’ complementary style, and the 49ers rushing attack is something to fear.
San Francisco’s run game is currently second in the league with 458 yards and averaging a second-best 5.6 rushing yards per rush.
However, the offense will be relying more on the play of these two moving forward, and it won’t be easy. During Breida’s time behind new starting quarterback CJ Beathard last season he only averaged 18.5 rushing yards per game. This is less than 2.5 times what he averaged when Garoppolo was at quarterback for those five games (46.8).
Hopefully, the run game won’t regress with CJ Beathard at quarterback now.
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