With Marshawn Lynch skipping the first day of practice, Christine Michael got the first-team reps at running back and made the most of it. Michael had several impressive carries in the 11-on-11 scrimmage. There was no tackling, but he obviously would have broken into the secondary a couple of times and showed quite a burst at the line of scrimmage.
"We have very high expectations for him," Carroll said of Michael. "He's going to get a ton of work. He's just a million miles ahead of where he was in terms of understanding what we want scheme-wise, pass protection wise, route wise, and we know he's a natural runner. He's got explosive talent and we just want to get him to fit in."
Michael is the heir apparent to Marshawn Lynch, who is under contract for two more seasons. We're not expecting a timeshare after recent comments from RB coach Sherman Smith ("To me, there's a drop off. You take Marshawn out of the game, there's a drop off to the next guy. So why would we do that?").