LaMichael James says he weighs 208 pounds

SANTA CLARA – LaMichael James was interviewed Saturday afternoon by Bay Area reporters outside of the 49ers’ locker room. Here is a transcript.

Q: Bruce Miller said you’ve been nothing but positive. Is that the mindset you’re taking coming into camp?

JAMES: Yeah. If you don’t take that mindset, (training camp) will eat you alive. You come out here, long days – there is no reason to be upset. You’ve got to be here anyway, so you try to get the best out of it each and every day.

Q: How do you approach this opportunity with Kendall out for the season?

JAMES: I just want to say that Kendall is one of my best friends on the team. Any time you see any one close to you get hurt like that, it’s kind of depressing. You never want to see that. I’m a little down for him, all the work he put in during the offseason to be out here with us. You’ve just got to play for him.

Q: Have you had a chance to talk to him?

JAMES: Definitely. I talked to him all night and today, too.

Q: How is he?

JAMES: He’s good. He’s about as good as he can be with something as traumatic as that happening.

Q: Did he know right away yesterday that it was an ACL tear?

JAMES: I don’t believe so.

Q: What’s your mindset now that there is one fewer proven guy ahead of you on the depth chart?

JAMES: My mindset pretty much is still the same. I was treating it like that anyways, just going out and competing each and every day. Really just trying to make the team better any way I can.

Q: What do you have to do to get the kind of role you’d be satisfied with?

JAMES: Compete, that’s the main thing. Go out and work hard each and every day. I think it’s more of a mental thing, knowing what you’re doing, eyes in the right spot, picking up blitzes, whatever they ask you to do. One thing that’s important in this game is experience. As a rookie it’s a little difficult picking up everything. Now it’s my third year, I feel I have a better grasp of the offense.

Q: Are you excited to put the pads on today?

JAMES: Oh yeah, I think it will be fun. I think it will minimize some of this unnecessary thudding we have. Just protect each other. These are our teammates. It’s not like we’re playing against each other.

Q: What do you mean by unnecessary…

JAMES: Thudding. When you’ve got pads on, you’re protecting yourself. When you’re not out there with pads, anything could happen, people falling down, people holding each other up.

Q: How’s punt returning coming for you?

JAMES: Good. It’s just another way to get the ball in my hands. Last year was the first year. I feel like I can grow in it, and kick returning and running back. Whatever it is, I want to be an all-around player.

Q: If you get a lot of snaps this year, would you like to run more read option plays?

JAMES: I think it would be fun. Whatever the coaches decide to call I’m all for it.

Q: How much do you weigh right now?

JAMES: About 208.

Q: How much did you weigh last year?

JAMES: About 200 to be exact.

Q: Does the added weight have any effect on your speed?

JAMES: No, I’m still fast.

Q: What did you weigh as a rookie?

JAMES: Probably 190.

Q: To be exact?

JAMES: To be exact. I’m pretty accurate with the numbers.

This article has 24 Comments

  1. Next to impossible for a guy that size to add 18 pounds and maintain the same acceleration and top speed. However neither of those are really his problem anyway so maybe the weight will do him some good. Doubt it.

    1. Oh, I dunno about that. I’m 15-18lbs. over my HS weight but have retained short area quickness; I can peel a foil and pull a cork out of a wine bottle in no time. My acceleration and top end speed is fine; I’ve got a Tesla S.

    2. I am bummed by the Kendall Hunter news. Also Lattimore looks like he may not really contribute. Credit to Baalke for loading up on running backs. Lot of wear and tear at that position.

      The only silver lining I can see is that the backfield was getting crowded. Would have been hard to carry all those guys on the 53. Now, maybe a spot opens up for a bubble guy like Brandon Lloyd or Lawrence Okoye.

  2. What’s your ideal backfield with the players we have. If everyone was 100% healthy choose 4 running backs you’d want to go into a game with:

    Gore
    Lattimore
    Hyde
    Miller

    1. I don’t think Lattimore will be active very much this year due to not playing ST’s.

      The active RB group will likely be:

      Gore
      Hyde
      LMJ
      Miller

      The extra muscle will serve LMJ well. He is pretty close to Gore’s size now with more speed.

        1. Gore
          Hyde
          Lattimore
          LMJ

          I wonder if he was instructed to gain weight. His best attribute was breakaway speed. I’m not so sure he will still have that.

        2. My apologies. I totally missed the point of what you said CFC.

          I’d agree with you under that scenario, although I’m interested to see what LMJ can do with more carries.

          1. This is just out of my heiny talk but it seems to me that the RB position is a bit unique when it comes to rookie production. I’m basing this off of impression and not stat retrieval. The RB position appears to have a much less steep learning curve then many or most of the other offensive positions and to me the normal for true stud RB’s is to come out of college and have a great first or second year and if they struggle it tends to be in year 3 or 4 when the initial wear and tear starts to take its effect and defenses have more film on them. The elite backs don’t tend to have a that bad third or fourth year and just continue to be awesome until their career ends.

            So the point of all of this is that when I see a RB come out of college and struggle or really fail to impress in their first couple of seasons I tend to write them off as just good college backs that didn’t have that extra something special for the next level. This is where I see LMJ.

            1. That’s fair and you may ultimately be right, but I’ve seen some good things from LMJ; just not enough opportunities. Now maybe that’s because the Coaches aren’t impressed with his game or it could be that there aren’t enough snaps to go around after Gore.

              I guess we’ll get an answer this season.

              1. When your pessimistic about a players potential you’re never really wrong as long as your a fan. If I’m right then I’m right but if I’m wrong then my team ends up with a great player and I’m still happy.

              2. edit your=you’re.

                I do that in the pick’em as well and the last three seasons it’s cost me being in contention for the lead because the damn team keeps winning!

      1. Your comment about him being close to Gore’s weight is a good one. How do you know he has more speed, though?

    2. Coffee – Even without KH, this backfield smokes the early 90’s backfield of Dexter Carter, Keith Henderson and Amp Lee……Amp Lee…LMFAO!!!

  3. Hiya very nice web site!! Guy .. Excellent ..
    Superb .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds also?
    I’m glad to seek out a lot of helpful information right here within the put up, we need work out extra strategies in this
    regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

Comments are closed.