Harbaugh on Bruce Miller injury: It doesn't look good; SF looking at Marecic

[NinerSickness]

San Francisco 49ers ? Niner Insider Blog ? SFGate.com » FB Bruce Miller likely out for rest of season with shoulder injury

Too many injuries this year.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Brutal. Well, we've pretty much got to spread out the field some now.

 

[Smalls]

Brutal. Well, we've pretty much got to spread out the field some now.

I was thinking the same thing. Wonder if we see someone like Patton being activated, and try to get receivers/TEs (beyond Crabtree/Boldin/Vernon) more involved.

Even if we sign Marecic or plug Dixon in, I don't know that I feel comfortable with either of them playing many snaps at FB. Marecic might be more of a guy to fill in on special teams, where Miller plays a big role. I guess having Vance or Celek back there is an option, too, but I'm not so sure yet. Maybe Derek Carrier? It's easy to forget he's on the team but it sounded like they envisioned him in a swiss-army-knife role.

 

[ChrisPozz]

Dr. David J. Chao:

Scapula fractures are high energy injuries typically found in car accidents. Usuallly very painful but no surgery. Bruce Miller @49ers

 

[Crimsoncrew]

This means we won't have our starting 11 on the field at any point this year. Sweet.

 

[BINGO]

I would definitely consider ugly a$$ AD as a FB. He really intrigues me at that spot:

Is the answer as simple as Anthony Dixon? | Chat49ers.com

 

[Breaker99]

It would also be interesting to see Wilhoite... who is a little bit bigger of a body. But clearly Dixon would be better on shortage yardage downs running the ball.

 

[Breaker99]

This means we won't have our starting 11 on the field at any point this year. Sweet.

Regardless of the Miller injury, I feel we are fortunate to be as healthy as we are at this point of the year.

 

[Dodub]

This sucks! We lost what I believe is the best FB in the league. Not too happy.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Regardless of the Miller injury, I feel we are fortunate to be as healthy as we are at this point of the year.

Granted. We've had some frustrating injuries, but we're getting mostly healthy. This injury may be bigger than it appears on paper, though. Miller does a lot in our run game, and has developed into a steady contributor in the pass game.

 

[Jikkle]

Brutal. Well, we've pretty much got to spread out the field some now.

Well that was partly my thinking as well when I did say there could be a silver lining to this as hopefully we'll see a little more creativity from our personnel with Miller being out of the lineup.

Oddly enough the Tampa game seemed to feature less Miller and more LMJ and Hunter along with some empty sets so it seemed like we were getting a little away from our all 22 personnel and more varied formations.

 

[Jikkle]

Dixon would make sense since he knows all the running plays and he should know what the FB does on those plays so he could slide right into the role.

Vance makes some sense as well since he could be used as a pass catcher in that role and does have the size to do it.

So my guess is we use a combination of those two and will use Dixon more on running plays and Vance more on passing plays.

 

[Smalls]

Didn't see it in here yet, but one of the beat guys (Barrows I think?) said the team worked out FB/DL Will Tukuafu today and was deciding on whether or not to sign him. So that's another option, I suppose.