Miami ran 17 of its 19 first-half designed runs between the guards
Opponents have sent 42 of the 54 designed runs San Francisco has faced up the middle or over a guard, at 4.0 yards a carry. Miami barely tried anything else until it trailed by 15, and one of the four tackles who split that work inside, James Thompson Jr., is out three to six weeks.
Miami did not hide what it wanted at Levi's Stadium on Sunday. The Dolphins called 19 designed runs in the first half, and the official game book sends 17 of them up the middle or over a guard. Those 17 gained 74 yards, 4.4 a carry, and seven of them went for five yards or more. The two runs Miami sent outside the tackles in the half gained 6 yards between them.
A designed run, for every count here, is a carry by a back or a quarterback that the book does not record as a scramble.
The Rams had done the same thing in Melbourne, only less of it. Los Angeles called 27 designed runs and the book puts 20 of them inside the tackles, for 80 yards. Across both games San Francisco has now seen 54 designed runs, and 42 of them came at the middle of its line. They have gained 169 yards, 4.0 a carry.
That is not a collapse. It is a choice opponents keep making.
Nothing inside has broken. The longest of the 42 was De'Von Achane's 17 up the middle late in the first quarter on Sunday, and Marques Sigle, a safety, made the tackle. Blake Corum's 10 over left guard is the longest the Rams managed there. The runs that hurt are the steady ones. Miami's second possession, the 17-play drive that ended in a field goal, carried eight designed runs, and every one of them went inside, for 44 yards. Jaylen Wright's 8 over right guard put Miami at the San Francisco 9.
The concern is not news to the head coach. Fox analyst Daryl Johnston said on the broadcast that Kyle Shanahan had told the crew he was "a little bit concerned" about "the between-the-tackles run game," as Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle recorded in his game review Tuesday.
Miami stopped testing it once the score made running pointless. The Dolphins trailed 21-6 by their first snap of the third quarter and called eight designed runs in the entire second half, for 18 yards.
The four men in the middle, and the one who is out.
San Francisco has rotated four tackles inside, and the playtime pages of the two game books give every snap:
- Osa Odighizuwa: 36 of 61 in Melbourne, 41 of 59 on Sunday.
- Gracen Halton: 31 and 32.
- C.J. West: 23 and 26.
- James Thompson Jr.: 21 and 21.
Halton made his first career start on Sunday, one of five defensive linemen on the game book's lineup card for the opening snap. West started both games. Across the two, Halton leads him 63 snaps to 49. Branch wrote that it would be no surprise if Halton took West's starting job outright, and he described Miami right guard Jonah Savaiinaea driving West four yards downfield and onto the ground on a first-down run.
Thompson is the subtraction. The book records him injured on an Achane run over right guard with 5:07 left in the third quarter. On Monday Shanahan said Thompson and Demarcus Robinson both have high-ankle sprains, and that high ankles in general run "anywhere from three weeks at the best, which is very rare, to six weeks." His 42 snaps across two games have to go to somebody.
The rest of the list is short. Alfred Collins, listed first at right defensive tackle on the club's depth chart into September, went on injured reserve on September 10 with a torn patellar tendon and Shanahan has said his season is over. The club's roster page lists nine defensive linemen on the active roster, Thompson still among them, and four more on the practice squad: Vincent Anthony Jr., Kevin Givens, McKinnley Jackson and Sebastian Valdez. No transaction touching the defensive line had posted to the club's newsroom as of Tuesday afternoon.
Arizona comes to Levi's Stadium at 1:05 p.m. Pacific on Sunday. The first participation report of the week is due Wednesday, and it will say whether Romello Height, who broke his hand and was scheduled for surgery Tuesday, is anywhere near the edge rotation. Inside, the question is simpler: which of the three remaining tackles takes Thompson's 21 a game.
The Called Shot. Gracen Halton plays more defensive snaps than C.J. West against Arizona on Sunday. He has done it in both games, including the one West started and he did not, and when San Francisco opened Sunday in a five-man front, Halton was in it. The case against it is that Thompson's 21 snaps have to land somewhere and nobody has said where, and a gap of eight snaps in Melbourne and six on Sunday is not wide.
Sources: NFL official game books, San Francisco at Los Angeles, September 11, 2026, and Miami at San Francisco, September 20, 2026, for every run direction, yardage, lineup, injury notation and snap count above, with yardage as the book credits it. Eric Branch, San Francisco Chronicle, September 22, 2026, for Daryl Johnston's broadcast remark and the Savaiinaea block. Kyle Shanahan's conference call, September 21, 2026, as carried by David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone and Kyle Posey of Niners Nation. The club's own release for Collins's injured-reserve placement. 49ers.com roster page and newsroom, read September 22, 2026. 49ers.com schedule page for the Week 3 kickoff.
