San Francisco coach Jim Tomsula says the 49ers think their new running back, Reggie Bush, can carry the load as the featured back in their offense.
“Reggie can be an every down back. He’s done that in the NFL,” Tomsula said. “He’s a running back. He’s not a gadget guy in my opinion. I think Reggie Bush is a running back. I’m really excited about Reggie joining the crew.”
It’s unclear at the moment whether Bush, Carlos Hyde or Kendall Hunter will be the primary running back in the 49ers’ offense, but Tomsula said the 49ers have plans for all three of them.
“Right now we’ve got three guys in the backfield that we feel great about, they’re all just a little different from each other,” Tomsula said. “So as we get rolling here and we throw that ball out on the field, let’s take a look at what each guy does and build off that.”
It seems highly unlikely that the 30-year-old Bush, who had just 76 carries for 297 yards in Detroit last year, will get anything close to the workload that Frank Gore got in San Francisco last year, when he had 255 carries for 1,106 yards. But the 49ers think Bush can play a significant role in 2015.