The San Francisco 49ers are rebuilding their coaching staff after firing 10 assistant coaches earlier in the week. The offensive coordinator was one of those vacant positions, but it appears to be vacant no more, as San Francisco is set to hire Curtis Modkins, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
49ers are hiring former Lions RB coach Curtis Modkins as their offensive coordinator, per league sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 22, 2016
Modkins has been the Detroit Lions running back coach since 2013. While Detroit had the worst rushing attack in the NFL in 2015, Modkins can not be entirely to blame for that. As a matter of fact, when the Lions went through severe coaching changes midseason, Modkins took responsibility for the running game and the results were strong.
One more on Modkins — Abdullah averaged 3.6 yards per carry in the first half, 4.7 the final 8 games with Modkins coordinating the run game
— Justin Rogers (@Justin_Rogers) January 20, 2016
With Chip Kelly running the show, history suggests that San Francisco is going to have a strong rushing attack (or at least try to), so the kind of progress that Ameer Abdullah showed in Detroit with Modkins’ taking any a bigger role should be seen as an unquestioned positive for the 49ers and their fans.
Modkins won’t be calling plays in San Francisco. That’s Kelly’s domain. What he will do is be another ear for Kelly to bounce ideas off of during the week and another coach with plenty of experience on the sidelines on game days.