Aussie Jarryd Hayne delivers quite the encore in 49ers home debut
OK, so the Australian rugby league player (which is different from just plain old rugby, by the way) did pretty well for himself in his preseason opener.
Good for him. Nice story. But what have you got next?
Oh, more of the same? Jarryd Hayne, who spent last week talking with Shutdown Corner’s Frank Schwab about his transition to the NFL and just why he might leave fame abroad to try his hand at a new sport, had another smashing game on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys. In his San Francisco 49ers home debut, Hayne wowed the Levi’s Stadium crowd with more fireworks as a runner and punt returner.
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Hayne ran for a game-high 54 yards on eight carries and was even more impressive on punt returners, bringing three back for 84 yards — a crazy average of 28 yards per. (For context, the league leader in 2014, Micah Hyde, averaged 15.8 per.)
After two games now, Hyde, whom 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula last week called a “world-class professional athlete,” is averaging 21.6 yards on five punt returns, 9.0 yards per rush on 13 attempts and has a 33-yard kickoff return. That’s two 30-plus-yard rushes in two games and four 20-plus-yard returns.
Just showing off now?
This is looking pretty easy for Hayne so far in his first foray into American football. Has he now given himself the inside track to one of the 53-man roster spots? Over, say, Kendall Hunter, a guy who has played American football (and NFL football) a lot longer?
It’s starting to look that way. The fact that Hayne might be able to contribute on offense is fine, but it’s his special-teams value that will earn him a roster spot. If you think about it, rugby league has no fair catches and no blockers, so for Hayne this must be like shooting fish in a barrel (I so resisted trying to come up with a bad Crocodile Dundee pun here, so you thank me later).
He’s becoming a thing, and so Hayne — who worked out for a few other teams before signing with the 49ers in March — is on many teams’ radars now. Can the 49ers even attempt to cut him and sign him back to the practice squad? Almost certainly not.
He runs with ease, great power, balance and vision, and clearly the stage hasn’t been too big for him — as big as preseason gets anyway.
But after an otherwise miserable offseason, Hayne’s emergence has been a beacon of light for a team trying to find its way. That path could include one of the preseason’s better stories leaking into the regular season.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
