The San Francisco 49ers entered training camp with a deep and talented stable of running backs. That has since changed.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Niners lost talented fourth-year back Kendall Hunter for the season. Hunter reportedly tore his ACL during practice on Friday, but the team waited for an MRI confirmation to announce that he would likely miss the entire 2014 NFL season.

While not a crippling blow, it’s definitely one that shakes things up a bit in San Francisco’s offensive backfield. The team was loosely planning on scaling back 31-year old starting running back Frank Gore’s workload, with sights on getting the explosive Hunter on the field a bit more. Hunter had been primarily used as a change of pace running back through his first three seasons, but the door appeared to be open to a bigger overall role, especially as a receiver on third downs.

That isn’t happening now, and the 49ers will now be tasked to see if they still have the depth to lighten Gore’s workload, or if they’ll have to move forward with him as their main back on all downs.

The top candidates to take over Hunter’s #2 role are second year running back Marcus Lattimore, third-year running back LaMichael James and rookie back Carlos Hyde. Hyde arguably still needs work as a blocker and receiver, James is viewed as a pure scat back and Lattimore is oddly still not 100% healthy despite sitting out all of his rookie season last year.

Hyde is probably the ideal guy to jump up into a bigger role, as the Niners likely see him as Gore’s eventual long-term replacement. However, Hyde isn’t necessarily built to be a third down back and will need to prove he can get it done based off of his fundamentals in camp.

If the 49ers aren’t content with the guys they have behind Gore, it’s still entirely possible they just ride the aging back into the ground one last year. Gore’s role as been monitored closely over the years, as he specifically has begun to come off the field more and more in clear passing situations. However, as the most complete back on the team, and with Hunter done for the year, San Francisco may no longer have the luxury of spelling him as much.