There is a feeling around the NFL that even though they lost Super Bowl LVIII in heartbreaking fashion to the Kansas City Chiefs, the San Francisco 49ers still have the league’s best all-around roster.
They have a quarterback in Brock Purdy who is, at worst, a near-elite player, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year in star running back Christian McCaffrey and a number of other stars and studs on both sides of the football.
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel has been a key part of the 49ers’ air attack for the last few years. He was named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro First Team in 2021, and the following season, he secured a big bag in the form of a three-year, $73.5 million contract extension.
But since then, his production has dropped, and as a result, Anthony DiBona of Pro Football Network named him the 49ers’ most overrated player.
“San Francisco 49ers WR Deebo Samuel appeared to emerge as one of the position’s best in 2021,” DiBona wrote. “But ever since receiving a massive payday from the Niners, Samuel’s production has fallen off a cliff.
“In 2021, Samuel hauled in 77 receptions for a whopping 1,405 receiving yards and six touchdowns. In each of the last two seasons combined, Samuel has totaled just 1,524 receiving yards. It’s safe to say that Samuel has become overrated at this point.”
In 2022, armed with his big new bag, Samuel was only able to catch 56 passes and post 632 receiving yards and a meager two receiving touchdowns. He went from 87.8 receiving yards per game in 2021 to 48.6 receiving yards per game in 2022, which was almost a 50 percent decrease.
Deebo Samuel is still valuable to the 49ers in spite of his statistical dip
Last season, Samuel’s production went up just a bit to 892 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. But it was still a far cry from the outstanding numbers he put up in 2021.
One of his valuable assets is his ability to line up as a running back in the backfield and gain yardage on sweep sets running toward the sideline. In the last three seasons, he has scored a total of 16 touchdowns on the ground.
While one could argue that Samuel is overrated, especially against the backdrop of his 2021 season, his value to San Francisco was reaffirmed midway through the 2023 campaign when he missed nearly three full games with a shoulder injury.
Samuel sustained the injury in the first quarter of the team’s Week 6 game against the Cleveland Browns. On the season, San Francisco was third in points, but in the three games Samuel either missed or didn’t finish, it scored just 17 points apiece, which was its season low.
Fellow wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk is looking for a lucrative contract extension these days, and giving him one could necessitate trading Samuel at some point in the near future in order to keep the 49ers under the salary cap and allow them to also give Purdy an extension.
The hope is that the rest of the league doesn’t think Samuel is too overrated to give the 49ers some decent compensation for him should he actually get dealt at some point.
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