Frank Gore has been a RB1 for the better part of the last six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. During that span the talented running back has averaged over 1,500 total yards per season. At the age of 29, Gore appears to be on the downswing in what has been a mighty impressive career.

San Francisco, with Super Bowl aspirations, is going to do everything in their power to make sure that Gore is fresh when December and January roles around.

In the process of making sure that this actually happens, San Francisco went out there and signed Brandon Jacobs away from the New York Giants, while selecting former Oregon star LaMichael James in the second round of April's draft. Those two players join Gore and an emerging Kendall Hunter in what has quickly become the most crowded backfield in the National Football League.

It is just hard to imagine anyone out of that group getting enough touches to be counted on consistently in fantasy football. While this does probably equate to a great deal of success on the football field for San Francisco, it does mean you should buy low on Gore.

Couple that with the fact that Trent Baalke and Co. added Randy Moss and Mario Manningham in the passing game and you have the makings of a 49ers' offense that may shift a little bit of their focus from the running game to the passing game.

Moss and Manningham join Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree to form the best group of skill position players San Francisco has had since the days of Steve Young. With this comes a tremendous amount of questions as it related to one single running back getting 250-plus touches.

At this point, I would conclude that Gore is nothing more than a marginal RB2 heading into the 2012 season. This doesn't mean that he isn't going to produce. It is just an indicator that the days of Gore being a consistent fantasy threat are over.

Statistics provided by http://www.pro-football-reference.com/