When the 49ers drafted running back Trey Sermon in the third round, they were getting a player who already had a good handle on their offense.
Sermon, who transferred from Oklahoma to Ohio State last year, said he has been studying 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense since last year because he knew Ohio State asked its running backs to do many of the same things that the 49ers’ running backs do.
“When I was making the transition to Ohio State, I was looking at a lot of outside zone,” Sermon said, via Jennifer Lee Chan of NBCSportsBayArea.com. “The 49ers were definitely one of the teams that I looked at. Just going through the progressions and the reads because I knew when I got to Ohio State we were going to run a lot of that.”
Sermon said he feels like he has a leg up on learning the playbook.
“It hasn’t been too difficult just making the transition,” Sermon said. “Some of the stuff is similar to what I did at Ohio State. I feel like my acclimation will be pretty smooth and it will be good.”
Sermon averaged more than seven yards a carry last season at Ohio State, and he averaged more than seven yards a carry in 2019 at Oklahoma as well. The 49ers would love to see Sermon be the same kind of big-time threat in an NFL offense where he already feels comfortable.
