Niners' Deebo Samuel can bully defenses all over field

By Eric D. Williams
FOX Sports NFL Writer

Deebo Samuel called his shot.

The San Francisco 49ers had just taken possession last Sunday in a sudden change situation after intercepting Dak Prescott midway through the third quarter at Dallas.

Before jogging out to the field, Samuel told Niners coach Kyle Shanahan to just give him the ball, and he would score.

"Deebo is as real of a guy as I’ve been around," Shanahan said. "He has a passion for this game that is making him one of the best players in this league. And the passion he has when he says that, those words carry a little different to me than other people’s. I want him to get the ball on almost every play.

"I wasn’t quite thinking about it there. We had a quick turnaround, got a turnover, and I was sitting there thinking about what direction to go, and I probably would have ended up going that direction. But when Deebo looks at you and says that, it wasn’t hard to think about it. It was just: Find a run to Deebo."

Shanahan obliged, and the result was a jaw-dropping, 26-yard cutback run for a score that gave San Francisco a 16-point lead in the NFC wild-card game. The Niners held on to win 23-17.

Samuel’s called shot surprised San Francisco offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who has seen the dynamic playmaker do everything.

"I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve never, ever — ever — been around a football player that called his own shot," McDaniel told reporters this week. "I get it in basketball, but when you’re playing with 22 people on the field, and 11 of them are trying to tackle you with every ounce of being that they have, and you just say, ‘Yeah, give me the ball. I’m going to put the ball in the box.’ And for him to do it, that was a special moment that only a special player could accomplish."

A 6-foot, 220-pound force of nature, Samuel’s numbers are breathtaking and undeniable. His 1,770 scrimmage yards are No. 3 in the NFL. He finished the 2021 regular season as one of the best receivers in the league, with 77 catches on 121 targets for a career-high 1,401 receiving yards, leading the NFL with 18.3 yards per reception.

But it’s Samuel’s ability to run the football that stands out. His eight rushing touchdowns rank tops among receivers in the Super Bowl era since 1970. Samuel led all receivers this season with 365 rushing yards in the regular season.

According to Next Gen Stats, San Francisco aligned Samuel in the backfield on 71 offensive snaps since Week 10 (19%), the most among receivers. McDaniel worked during the second half of the season to find creative ways to get Samuel the ball in the running game.

"Deebo has been unique to all of our careers," McDaniel said. "You’re always trying to define what a football player is, and it’s still hard to define, but the game moves slow for him. He’s fearless, he’s fast, he’s big, and he’s hard to tackle.

"The evolution of how we use him is a product of two things: him being a really good football player, and I think Kyle does a really good job of pushing his staff to open their mind and see what’s there with maybe what we haven’t done. Really think through the why’s of what we do."

The Green Bay Packers have the tough task of slowing down Samuel in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs Saturday (8:15 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app). Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers is 0-3 against San Francisco in the postseason.

The Packers can take some solace in having taken care of San Francisco with a dramatic, last-minute drive for a 30-28 victory in Week 3 of the regular season. The two teams are split at four wins apiece in eight postseason meetings, but the Packers have not defeated the 49ers in the playoffs since 2002.

Former NFL general manager Randy Mueller evaluated Samuel during the draft process in 2019. What he saw from the South Carolina product was a throwback to a different time in the NFL, when offenses focused more on running the football.

As such, it makes sense for Shanahan’s run-based zone run game to use Samuel as a runner. The Niners ran the ball 48.43% of the time in the regular season, fourth in the NFL. San Francisco averaged 127 yards on the ground, seventh in the NFL. The Niners face a Green Bay defense that allowed 4.7 yards per rush, third-worst in the league, in the regular season.

"He has kind of broken the mold," Mueller said. "You just felt like he could do everything. I see why they use him as a running back in Kyle’s scheme. He’s kind of a one-cut guy, but it’s his lower body that makes him special. He’s really powerful, and he can break tackles. He could be a frontline return guy if they used him all the time.

"He’s definitely a throwback guy. You could roll him out and do anything — and just trust him. If I’m his coach, you don’t really have to tell him. You just say, ‘Go in there,’ and he’d figure it out. There are guys that have to be coached and repped, but I don’t think this guy would need a rep, and he’d figure it out."

Dual-threat athletes such as Cordarrelle Patterson, Tavon Austin and Percy Harvin have been used as comparisons to Samuel, but none of them has the rare combination of athletic traits that Samuel possesses, according to FOX Sports NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang.

"People want these utility players, but guys who have this type of size and physicality are just unusual," Rang said. "If they are that big and strong, then they don’t usually have good hands. And he’s got the whole package in that regard. There are a lot of guys out there who are Swiss army knives — and that’s kind of a cliché in scouting — these guys who have so many different tools to them. But I think he’s the biggest and best of the Swiss army knives in the NFL right now.

"I think he could play just about any position that you want. He just has an uncommon combination of size, physicality, speed and elusiveness."

Samuel was part of "Rang’s Gang" three year ago, the draft guru’s annual list of the best non-first-round prospects in the draft.

Back then, Rang noted Samuel’s penchant for scoring touchdowns (30 total in 30 games at South Carolina), along with his running back build and ability to make plays after the catch. Rang also pointed out Samuel’s injury concerns: He missed 20 games in college due to hamstring and foot injuries.

Samuel has missed games due to injury every year in three NFL seasons, having been out for 11 total games due to leg injuries in his pro career.

However, injuries aside, the story for Samuel remains the way he bullies opponents on game day, living up to the nickname his father, Galen, gave him as a youngster in honor of the bully in the movie "Friday," Deebo.

Last week against Dallas, Samuel expanded his role to include leading his teammates out to the field like the opening of a boxing match. The Niners hope Samuel can help them beat up on the Packers in the cold weather at Lambeau Field on Saturday.

"The story for me with Deebo is the name," Rang said. "He literally was named for Deebo after the movie ‘Friday,’ and that’s because he was a bully. And he plays like that. There’s a lot of cool nicknames out there but not too many guys who live up to a nickname that cool."

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @eric_d_williams.