Of all the practice reports to monitor leading up to Week 17, none looks more important than San Francisco's. The 49ers are at home against the Texans' 30th-ranked run defense, so they're going to have a great running back. The hope is it will be Elijah Mitchell.
Mitchell has missed the last three games with a knee injury, but he's been practicing on a limited basis this week. When he's been healthy, he's been very productive -- the team's best running back by a wide margin.
Table below shows San Francisco's leading rusher in every game this season, during which they've tried sixth-rounder Mitchell, third-rounder Trey Sermon, and veteran Jeff Wilson. Mitchell has five of the team's six best games, and eight of the 10 best games. Wilson and Sermon have combined for the five worst games by the team's lead running back. (Table sorted by total yards.)
| 49ERS LEAD BACKS, WEEK BY WEEK | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Opp | Run | Rec | Tot | TD |
| Mitchell | Minn. | 133 | 35 | 168 | 1 |
| Mitchell | at Chi. | 137 | 0 | 137 | 1 |
| Wilson | Atl. | 110 | 9 | 119 | 1 |
| Mitchell | Ind. | 107 | 0 | 107 | 1 |
| Mitchell | at Det. | 104 | 0 | 104 | 1 |
| Mitchell | LAR | 91 | 0 | 91 | 0 |
| Sermon | Sea. | 89 | 0 | 89 | 0 |
| Mitchell | at Sea. | 66 | 18 | 84 | 1 |
| Mitchell | Ariz. | 36 | 43 | 79 | 0 |
| Mitchell | at Ariz. | 43 | 19 | 62 | 0 |
| Wilson | at Jac. | 50 | 8 | 58 | 0 |
| Wilson | at Tenn. | 45 | 12 | 57 | 1 |
| Wilson | at Cin. | 56 | 0 | 56 | 0 |
| Sermon | at Phil. | 42 | 11 | 53 | 0 |
| Sermon | G.B. | 31 | 3 | 34 | 1 |
It would be nice if Mitchell could get in a full practice today. If he's limited again, you have to worry that it will actually be Wilson instead. Of course, if you have Wilson on your roster and not Mitchell, you're hoping he's the one in the lineup, since he should also be very good against a run defense that's allowed 141 yards per game and 25 touchdowns -- more than anyone but the Jets.
But for the Niners, they'd be better with Mitchell out there leading the way. If he's healthy, he looks like a must-start.
--Andy Richardson