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In the few NFL games Jarryd Hayne has played in so far, he has spent more time on the sidelines than he has in the game.
In four pre-season appearances, Hayne had 25 carries for 175 yards. That gave him an astounding seven yard per carry average. He caught three passes for 35 yards, returned nine punts for a total of 163 yards and had a kick-off return of 33 yards.
Hayne led the team in both rushing yards and carries in his first two games.
Then the regular season rolled around, with the 49ers facing the Minnesota Vikings at home to start their season. Hayne was back to receive the punt… and he fumbled it.
In his very first regular season game, he muffed the punt, diving for it instead of calling for a fair catch. The Vikings recovered, and it seemed like a nightmare start for someone who’d been so promising in the pre-season.
In the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he very smartly called for a fair catch on his first possible punt return. In the third quarter, he got his opportunity, but only made seven yards on the return.
Going into the game this morning against the Arizona Cardinals, nobody really knew what to expect. Fellow running back Reggie Bush was out, injured with a calf problem. Would this injury mean that Hayne got some extra opportunities, a chance to finally prove his worth in the regular season?
No.
Much like the previous week, the 49ers got blown out, and Hayne barely took the field. On his lone opportunity on return duties, he flashed the brilliance we all saw in the pre-season. The Hayne Plane caught the punt head on, and ran it 37 yards. That 37-yard return put the 49ers into position to score.
Through three games, he’s had six carries for 16 yards – his 2.7 yards per carry average is a far cry from what he put up in the pre-season. He’s returned two punts for a total of 44 yards. His sharp drop-off in production isn’t due to a lack of work on Hayne’s part, or the fact that he’s now facing first team defences as opposed to the third string scrubs he matched up against in the pre-season.
The reason we haven’t seen him produce like we know he’s capable of is down to one man, and one man only: 49ers coach Jim Tomsula.
There will be people who will say that Hayne’s still a rookie and that he’s still unproven, that a few pre-season performances does not justify a bigger role in the offence. But there is no reason to not play Jarryd Hayne right now.
Mike Davis is not a better player than Hayne. I don’t care what he did in college – this is the NFL we’re talking about, and in the NFL, Hayne has shown more than Davis on all fronts. The pre-season may not count for anything, and the players may be playing against lesser competition, but Hayne still played out of his mind in the first four weeks before the season started and deserves a bigger role.
Hayne is better than Reggie Bush, though many would disagree. I’m still undecided on Carlos Hyde; before the season started, I also said Hayne was better than Hyde. Hyde proved me wrong in the first game, but over the last two he’s looked sluggish and ineffective. I’ll double down on my ‘Hayne trumps Hyde’ theory if the number one back doesn’t start producing.
Why Tomsula hasn’t given Hayne a chance yet is beyond my understanding. Why he keeps playing Davis, when Hayne is actually ahead of Davis on the depth chart, is unbeknownst to me. Why he refuses to allow the Hayne Plane to take off in the running game – even if he only gives him five to seven carries a game, especially when other running backs are injured – I can’t grasp.
All I know is that if Tomsula wants to keep his job, and the 49ers want to keep Hayne for the long term, they need to start winning more games. How do you win more games? You play Jarryd Hayne.
If they keep him relegated to the sidelines, the 49ers will miss out on an incredible talent, and Hayne will be taking his talent somewhere else – and I wouldn’t blame him one bit.
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