9 NFL Veterans Who Could Lose Their Jobs to 2017 Rookies

Carlos Hyde

Stick a fork in the San Francisco 49ers’ Carlos Hyde. He might be done.

That’s not to say that the Niners’ bell cow back has been bad by any means. Through 332 career carries, Hyde has sustained a league-average -0.02 Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) per carry rate. Last year, his -0.01 mark in this metric was good for 22nd among the 42 running backs to top 100 attempts, and his Rushing Success Rate (the percent of rushes creating positive NEP) was 19th-best among the same.

So what’s the problem? Hyde has been in the league for three years, but has played in just 34 of a possible 48 games due to injury (an average of 138 carries per season). On top of that, he’s a classic power runner that will need to fit into new head coach Kyle Shanahan’s outside zone-run scheme.

Worse still, Shanny was apparently banging the table hard for Utah’s Joe Williams from the second round through the fourth, when they selected him, this despite the fact that Williams was removed from the team’s board prior to the draft.