SEPTEMBER 1: Should Sermon clear waivers, the 49ers plan to offer him a practice squad spot, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. With claims on the second-year back to be known soon, Sermon’s next stop should be determined Thursday.
AUGUST 31: San Francisco turned heads when selecting Trey Sermon as high as they did last season. Today, his 49ers tenure as taken another notable turn as the team is waiving him (Twitter link via ESPN’s Field Yates). 
The Oklahoma and Ohio State product only topped 1,000 scrimmage yards once in his four-year college career. However, his 870 rushing yards (on an average of 7.5 per carry) with the Buckeyes in 2020 helped boost his draft stock. The 49ers selected him in the third round – having traded up to do so – adding another back to Kyle Shanahan‘s well-known committee system.
As a rookie, the 23-year-old started just two of the nine games he played in. He turned 41 carries into 167 yards and one touchdown, hardly the production which would be expected of such a highly-drafted back. The presence of Jeff Wilson and Elijah Mitchell left him with plenty of competition for touches in both the short- and long-term.
That became especially true when the 49ers took another third-round back this past April, drafting Tyrion Davis-Price. His addition spoke to the regard in which Sermon was held by the front office, although recent remarks from general manager John Lynch suggested that this move was unlikely.
“He worked incredibly hard and had a tremendous offseason,” Lynch said of Sermon last week (Twitter link via PFF’s Doug Kyed). “[It] hasn’t showed up in the games, but throughout training camp [he] has been one of our best players.”
Yates’ colleague Adam Schefter tweets that the 49ers waived Sermon to accommodate the arrival of former Browns guard Blake Hence, whom they claimed earlier today. Whether Sermon is able to return to San Francisco’s practice squad, or gets claimed by a team likely to have a larger workload to offer him will be worth watching.
It will always baffle me that a Shanahan team would trade up to draft a running back. How many random low round or I drafted backs have he and his father gotten star production out of over the years? How can you not see your own strength like that?
The worst part, they made the same mistake again this year drafting Ty Davis-Price in the 3rd Round, and then having him get outshined by their UDFA former GA Tech RB Jordan Mason..
Jordan Mason looks like the absolute real deal, and completely earned his spot on the 53 man roster.
So far, it looks like their other hand picked 3rd Rounder will be backing up TWO UDFAs in Jeff Wilson Jr. and Jordan Mason, and then he’ll also be backing up their late 6th Rounder Elijah Mitchell…
49ers could definitely be using those extra Third Rounders on the OL or at Safety…Just saying lol
They sure could! And even for non-Shanahan teams, what position outside of special teams provides more undrafted good players than running back?
Taking TDP over Nick Cross (or some other safety) this year looks like a poor decision in hindsight with the ward injury.
I’d rather have Hasty than him. Need RBs but this means Mason will stick. Now just need to get JC Tretter out of retirement now that we have a lil money
Bad pick need a solid rb bring back frank
Good he gone . Every season someone out played him. Why keep him to just waste a spot
Every season?
Last year Mitchell this season hasty and mason were having better preseason games .
I was wondering, since he’s only had one season. I try not to read too much into preseason games.
Last year in fantasy everyone thought he was going to be the break out rookie RB how wrong was that
Mitchell was a better fit in Kyle’s scheme and it was OBVIOUS from day one his combination of speed and his one cut and go running style would pass up Sermon.
The only question was when he’d pass Sermon, not if, and then Sermon running extremely indecisive quickly got him put in Kyle’s doghouse…
He was a very trendy pick on paper, and before any reports leaked out of their practices. From then on, it was easy to see who had hands down won that job.
It was a waste of a pick. They should have drafted either a CB or WR w/ that pick. He was injured all of last season and didn’t show S*** during training camp & the Pre-season games !!
trying to figure out if he’s an upgrade over Bennie Snell
If 49ers 6th round pick can out play last season idk if he better than snell
A UDFA just outperformed Snell this offseason, so by that math…
I do believe they liked him coming out, no? Though Tomlin seems to love Bennie for some reason too.
horrible pick
lol Blake Hance, not Hence. Your first clue should have been when there was no player bio to link to?
Hope Another team pick some up. The 49ers for whatever reason just never liked him. We
The Eagles claimed him on waivers.