San Francisco 49ers’ second-year running back JaMycal Hasty has earned the respect of star tight end George Kittle.
Hasty has spent another offseason competing for a spot on the Niners’ 53-man roster––and with Elijah Mitchell, and Jeff Wilson Jr. sidelined, he might have a better chance.
The 24-year-old saw action in last weekend’s preseason game vs. the Chiefs where he carried the football 10 times for 63 yards and a touchdown.
Kittle has taken notice of Hasty’s growth and production.
“I love Hasty. He gives me a Jeff Wilson vibe,” Kittle told reporters this week, via 49erswebzone. “He goes kind of into a dark place, and he just runs and runs, and he’s violent, he’s explosive. His cuts that you guys see, he just jukes people out, but he still has this nice forward lean to him where he’s just always running through contact.”
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Hasty’s Versatility Speaks Volume
Hasty originally signed with the Niners as an undrafted free agent last offseason. Thanks to injuries with the starters, he was able to compile 148 rushing yards and a touchdown on 39 carries in eight games in 2020.
He also played a prominent role on special teams which could work as an advantage to make the final roster cuts.
“He’s not the biggest guy and you look like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna get blown up by a linebacker,'” Kittle continued. “But how he just dodges the big hit and bounces off of stuff, I love that, and he’s relentless too. He’s a guy that he’ll take 10 reps in a row; he does not care. ‘Hey, just run 16 power and I’ll run it, I’ll get hit, I’ll get right back up, and I’ll run it again.’ And I love being around guys like that, that just bring the violence and the energy every single play.”
Hasty played his college career at Baylor where he totaled 1,998 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns while also adding 485 yards and another touchdown in the air.
Hasty Could Have Left San Francisco for More Pay
When the 49ers were hit with the injury plague last season, Hasty came to the rescue after spending the beginning of the season on the practice squad.
However, the Niners were really lucky that he stuck around.
“People have tried to come for him, too, this year,” Shanahan told reporters ahead of Week 8 last season. “The guy has been committed to stay here. We have expressed our plans for him and the guy had to make a tough decision a few weeks ago, whether to stay here on practice squad for another week or go to another team and he chose to stay here. He believed he’d eventually get his opportunity. We told him we didn’t know when, but it ended up happening the next week. So, he was ready and I’m glad he’s here for it.”
New practice squad rules revealed last season allowed a team to flex a player from the practice squad to the active roster for two games. The kicker? After both games, the player is reverted back to the practice team is free to sign a contract with another team.
At one point, Hasty had a chance to get a weekly pay raise of more than $27,000 but made a “quick” choice to stay faithful to the Bay Area.
“It was real quick,” Hasty’s agent Scott Casterline said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “He came to the conclusion, ‘I want to be here.’ And I agreed with him.”
His decision to stay ending up paying off then and let’s hope it does this year too.
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49ers’ RB Garners Attention from George Kittle: ‘He’s Violent & Explosive’