49ers WR Deebo Samuel says he’s open to trying new position

Many assume if the San Francisco 49ers sign receiver Brandon Aiyuk to a massive long-term contract extension, the team will look to trade its other star wideout Deebo Samuel next offseason.

But the 49ers may want to rethink that proposition, especially if Samuel makes himself even more invaluable to the offense and learns to play a third position: kick returner.

The 28-year-old, who works mainly as a wideout but also lines up as a running back from time to time, isn’t opposed to the idea. In fact, he’s all for trying it out during training camp and seeing how things shake out.

“I wouldn't mind doing it from the get-go,” Samuel told reporters on Friday. “I'm a team-first player, so if Kyle (Shanahan) was like, ‘Hey, man, we don't want you to do it full-time, we just use you whenever we really need it,’ I'm fine with that. But if you want to use me full-time, I'm all for that as well.”

Samuel has limited experience returning kickoffs during his five-year NFL career. He had three kick returns for 75 yards in 2021 (25 yards per return) and another six returns for 154 yards last season (25.6 yards per return), but with the NFL’s new kickoff rules, he believes the odds favor explosive players like himself.

“Looking at it, it's kind of weird, but I feel like on the side that we’re on, for us, the returning team, I feel like we have a real big advantage of you make one guy miss,” Samuel added. “I mean, it's just you and a kicker. Nine times out of 10, the kicker's not making tackles. So, I'm pretty sure people will try to turn skill guys into kickers at some point if it continues to go [this way], just so they have a last-line-of-defense tackler.”