A tale of two halves: Deebo Samuel’s breakout 2021 season
Deebo Samuel’s breakout 2021 season redefined the limits of the wide receiver position. His success as a pass catcher and as a runner helped vault him into the upper echelon of the NFL’s playmakers and earned him a First-Team All-Pro nod. The positional revolution is now helping catalyze the debate about his value amid derailed contract negotiations and a now-public trade request.
The main question is whether his value stems from his versatility. His two very different halves of the 2021 campaign lend support to the idea that even without the rushing production he’s still one of the NFL’s most dangerous pass catchers.
While Samuel took the league by storm with his abnormal rushing numbers and highlight-reel plays in the second half of the year, he was tracking for an All-Pro campaign based solely on his receiving totals through his first eight games.
In those contests Samuel was targeted 81 times and caught 49 passes for 882 yards and four touchdowns. He ran it just six times for 22 yards and one touchdown.
Extrapolating those receiving numbers over a full season would’ve made him No. 1 in targets, tied for 11th in receptions, No. 2 in yards and tied for 16th in touchdown catches. Those are very good numbers and his ability to generate yards with the ball in his hands makes it easy to assume his production wouldn’t have tailed off.
Then there was a dramatic shift over his final eight games. He notched just 40 targets with 28 catches for 523 yards and two touchdowns. Still respectable, but less than elite. In the meantime his rushing stats ballooned to 53 carries, 343 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns, and the ‘wideback’ was born.
Ideally his role would fall somewhere in the middle. Perhaps over the course of the year he spreads out 60 carries across 17 games while continuing to be involved in the passing game. However it happens it’s clear Samuel is valuable regardless of his position. He generates yards and he scores touchdowns. Those are the two most important skills an offensive skill-position player can have.
If it’s truly a problem of role, the 49ers should be able to work around that. He’s too good of a player to be confined to one thing. And if the 49ers do have to start limiting his carries, then they have a wide receiver who was in the midst of a monster pass-catching year before his responsibilities on offense changed.
