The San Francisco 49ers have recently acquired Isaac Guerendo, the former running back of Wisconsin Badgers and Louisville Cardinals, in the 2024 NFL Draft in the fourth round as the 129th pick.
According to 49ers Web Zone, the general manager, John Lynch and head coach, Kyle Shanahan, shared during the concluding day of the 2024 NFL Draft. They traded up in round four to get Guerendo and head coach Shanahan, regarding the trade, mentioned, "Well we love his speed. We think he"s got a lot of speed. All our backs can run, but it"s nice to add one who possibly can run a little bit faster just for the change of pace and things like that. We like his running style. His running style I think is similar to [RB] Elijah"s [Mitchell] and the style that he runs with, he"s built that way and like the 40 that he has."
The Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year recipient also shed light on adding speed to the roster and when he was asked about whether 49ers offense will be big in speed department, he shared, "No, we didn"t make a blanket statement like that, but we wanted to add some speed to the running back room if we could. But you don"t just add that just to add it. It"s got to be the right type of runner with the speed. And there were a couple guys in the back end in the Draft who had that. And this is the one we really liked in that way."
Robert Turner Jr., who is the coach of the running backs, was also interested in Guerendo’s prospects and was positive about the decision to add him to the 49ers. Regarding this, the head coach mentioned, "I mean, Bobby loved him from the beginning. He called him back at all the right times (laughter). He answered his texts. I"m just telling you, if you don"t do that, it"s hard to come back from that with Bobby. But, the same things I said, I mean we all really liked the speed part about him. But lots of guys can run. You have to be as good of a running back and the physicality he ran with how he was without the ball in his hand we felt he was a guy who played to our style and the skillset set could help us."
Last year with Louisville, he posted 234 receiving yards, and had 132 carries while playing in 14 games. He gained 810 yards and his average was 6.1 yards per carry, as per Pro Football Talk. Guerendo, with his speed and physicality, makes him one of the best talents coming from collegiate football.
