The San Francisco 49ers have been shopping LaMichael James this offseason and the team could have some interested teams in the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals, as all those teams could use some running back depth and the Niners may make a deal heading into the NFL draft for their running back.
The Niners have played down the fact that they are shopping James, but that doesn't mean they aren't still shopping him and the Bears, Cowboys, Giants and Broncos all seem like logical options, while the Cardinals also could look to add the back. The 49ers might be willing to take a mid-round pick for James and while they already have double digit picks and don't "need" more, adding a pick or two will give the team even more ammo to trade up in the draft, which is something that the team has reportedly been interested in doing.
The 49ers have moved up in the draft with Jim Harbaugh multiple times and they did it last season for Eric Reid and they did it with Colin Kaepernick as well and this season looks like another prime time to do it. The Niners want Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins or Johnny Manziel and while those players are very out of reach, the team could look to pull off a big move up to take one of them. The Niners need more depth at wide receiver and Evans or Watkins could be an amazing complement to Anquan Boldin, who is getting older, and Michael Crabtree, who is still just a year removed from Achilles surgery.
Matt Forte needs some help behind him with the Chicago Bears, while the Cowboys have been interested in adding more behind DeMarco Murray, who has had injury issues. The team has Joe Randle and Philip Tanner, but they may want something else there to give him some support and James also could be an effective back out of the backfield. James could not get into the rotation for the Niners with Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter leading the way and he made his bones returning kicks mostly and he could be valuable in that area also, as he has blazing speed and it very nimble at his size. That is another reason the Bears could go for it, as they lost Devin Hester after not re-signing him this offseason.
The Arizona Cardinals ranked 23rd in the league in rushing last season and while they have Andre Ellington and Stepfan Taylor, the team lost Rashard Mendenhall to retirement and they could be in the mix over drafting a player in the upcoming draft. James has played in just 14 games in his career with the 49ers and has rushed for just 184 yards, but he has great speed and tons of talent and clearly needs a chance of scenery. Last season he returned 23 punts for 251 yards and had a long of 40-yards and that makes him a versatile option if one of the teams wants to trade for him.
