Former Ohio State star Trey Sermon released by 49ers

In one of the more surprising moves of NFL roster moves on Wednesday, former Ohio State star Trey Sermon was released from the San Francisco 49ers a little bit more than a year after being picked by the franchise in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. They waived him in order to make room for former Cleveland Browns’ guard Blake Hance. The 49ers claimed Hance off waivers earlier on Wednesday.

Sermon was a popular dark horse selection for 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in the preseason last year, but that never came remotely close to materializing after Louisiana-Lafayette’s Elijah Mitchell took over the lead job in the San Francisco backfield. He rushed for 963 rushing yards and five touchdowns on the ground on 207 carries in his rookie year.

Sermon finished with just 167 rushing yards and one touchdown on 41 rushing attempts in the 2021-2022 season. His best game last year was against the Seattle Seahawks, when he had 19 carries for 89 rushing yards. The former Ohio State standout was recently given praise by 49ers GM John Lynch, which makes his release even more surprising.

Sermon’s college career ended with a bang

Sermon spent his undergraduate career in Norman where he played with or behind Rodney Anderson, Kennedy Brooks, and Rhamondre Stevenson. To increase his playing time, he elected to leave for Columbus as a graduate transfer.

In the 2020 season at Ohio State, Sermon’s first five games were pedestrian. He had between nine and 13 rushing attempts with 48 to 112 yards. He was the second-string running back during those games behind Master Teague. Teague suffered an Achilles injury against Northwestern in the Big Ten title game in December, and Sermon exploded onto the scene. 

Against Northwestern he had 331 yards and two touchdowns, breaking Eddie George’s previous single-game yardage record of 313 yards. Sermon provided the spark for a struggling Ohio State offense and was rewarded with the game’s MVP award.  In the Sugar Bowl against Clemson, he had an additional 193 rushing yards and a score. He ended the 2020 season averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

In total, Sermon has 455 rushing attempts for 2,946 yards and 26 touchdowns at the collegiate level.

Treash wrote that Sermon broke 0.32 tackles per attempt while in college, which was tied for fifth in the FBS during that time period.

Coming out of Sprayberry High School, Sermon was rated a four-star prospect and the No. 16 running back in America for the 2017 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings.

On3’s Ashton Pollard also contributed to this article.