Kaelon Black’s chance to emerge as 49ers RB2 is set to be tested in the preseason opener

The San Francisco 49ers’ preseason begins on Thursday at Levi’s Stadium, with a 6:00 p.m. kickoff against the Tennessee Titans, and the intrigue inside the offensive backfield is hard to miss. Training camp has reportedly included injury-related problems in the running back group, and that has opened the door for Kaelon Black to push for a larger piece of the RB2 workload.

Black’s immediate task is straightforward but not necessarily easy, establishing enough trust in the run and pass game to be the primary backup option behind the starter. In preseason football, that usually means being available early for series-based reps, showing pass-protection responsibility, and converting limited touches into positive, repeatable production. For a team that needs depth to hold up under game reps, the RB2 role can quickly become a performance job rather than a reputation job.

San Francisco is back at its home venue for the first time in this preseason window, and the setting matters because the RB rotation often tightens once the regular season preparation phase begins in earnest. A preseason opener carries a different rhythm than later games, with coaches more likely to put their most reliable second-team pieces on the field to evaluate decision-making, tempo, and basic assignments. If Black is going to take over the RB2 role, the opening game is one of the clearest chances to prove it.

The underlying context is that the 49ers’ running back room has been dealing with injuries in training camp, according to the report. When that is the case, opportunities for players lower on the depth chart tend to accelerate. Black’s value, then, is not only in ball carrying, but also in how quickly he can absorb responsibilities that come with extra snaps, including situational running, receiving routes out of the backfield, and pass-protection communication.

For the 49ers, the preseason is also about sorting out roles that can influence how the offense functions with different personnel groupings. If Black can separate as the clear RB2 option, San Francisco gets flexibility in how it manages the starter’s workload and how it builds a second unit that can keep drives moving. If he cannot, the team’s depth picture may remain fluid going into later preseason games, where reps are often used to widen the evaluation set.

Tennessee provides a useful stress test because preseason matchups can still expose weaknesses in coverage assignments, spacing on rush lanes, and consistency in blocking schemes. That makes the next question not just how many touches Black receives, but whether he looks steady when the backfield is asked to execute at game speed. The 49ers’ handling of the running game early in this contest should clarify whether the coaching staff intends to lean on Black as a primary reserve.