Deebo Samuel earned a lucrative three-year, $71.5 million deal this offseason after an MVP caliber 2021 where he was the 49ers best running back and wide receiver. So far this season, his production hasn’t reached close to those heights.
As a receiver, Samuel is averaging 51 yards per game which would be a career low. The 49ers passing offense is down as a whole, but not all that much, only 14 yards per game from last year. Greg Cosell of NFL Films thinks the downturn in production has to do with the fact that the 49ers have more weapons on offense, including the emergence of Brandon Aiyuk as a star. With the relatively conservative nature of the 49ers offense, there just aren’t enough opportunities for two or three high target guys.
“He’s not had a great year as a receiver for sure,” Cosell began with Murph & Mac. “I think their pass game has been very up and down, and I think they need more out of it on a weekly basis if they want to get where people think they can get to.
“Three guys can’t all have 130 targets, cause first of all this is not a big passing team in terms of volume. If they play the way they want to play, Garoppolo is going to have 30 dropbacks at most in a given game. This is not Chiefs where Mahomes has 45-48 dropbacks, that’s just the way they play. That’s not the way the Niners play. So, Samuel, Aiyuk and Kittle all each can’t have 10-12 targets every single week.”
Aiyuk is averaging 59 yards per game, 11 more than last year, and already has a career-high six touchdowns. Deebo only has two so far.
“It’s a difficult question, I don’t know the answer to it if I’m being honest because you have to be in the meeting rooms to know how all that’s talked about and mapped out,” Cosell continued. “But he certainly has not made the impact plays at receiver up to this point this season that we saw him make a year ago.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
