Taylor rushed 39 times for 183 yards and a touchdown last year. The bulk of his production came late in the year when San Francisco’s running back room was wrecked by injuries. Taylor also played on special teams throughout the year and that will likely be his role in 2025.

Taylor’s second spot start of the season went a lot better than his first in Week 16. With his long run going for “just” 29 yards, the first 100-yard outing of Taylor’s career wasn’t about only one big run. He more than doubled his previous personal best of 53 yards rushing from Week 18 2021. Good stuff, but not the sort of thing that is going to be a career-maker for a soon-to-be 27-year-old at this point. “PTJ” is headed back to unrestricted free agency, where the 49ers should be light favorites to re-sign him.

With Isaac Guerendo out plus Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason on injured reserve, the 49ers scraped the bottom of the barrel this week and came up with Taylor as their starting running back. While he did see all of the running back carries and targets, Deebo Samuel mixed in as the No. 2 back and Kyle Juszczyk saw some work on passing downs. Samuel earned five carries while Juszczyk was targeted three times. All of that makes Taylor the leader of a messy committee as opposed to a true workhorse back. With San Francisco falling behind early, Taylor’s modest role was all but nullified. He will be stuck in the RB3 ranks if Guerendo remains out for Week 17 against Detroit.

Taylor took over for Isaac Guerendo (foot) in the fourth quarter and had the pleasure of plunging into the end zone from three yards out. The journeyman rusher could have an RB2-worthy role against the Rams on Thursday night if Guerendo is unable to play. Taylor packs a punch at 6-foot-2, 217 and is impressively averaging 0.29 missed tackles forced per carry to show for it.