All 49ers

Will 49ers WR Deebo Samuel Play a Full Season this Year?

This offseason, the 49ers spent a first-round pick on wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, probably because Samuel misses games.

Grant Cohn

Jan 7, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19)
Jan 7, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19) / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Deebo Samuel has accomplished so much in his five-year career. He has been to four NFC Championships, two Super Bowls and one Pro Bowl. He also was named first-team All Pro in 2021. And yet he still hasn't played a full season in the NFL.

Samuel has missed at least one game every year. Last season, he missed two and the 49ers lost both times. And in college, he never played a full season, either. In fact, he missed 21 of 51 games in four years at South Carolina.

This is not a fluke. Samuel misses games because he plays so violently. He doesn't avoid collisions, he creates them. And most of the time, the defensive player takes the brunt of the impact. But over the course of a few months, the collisions take their toll and Samuel inevitably misses time. And even when he doesn't miss time, he's often banged up and less than 100 percent when he's on the field, which is not ideal for the 49ers because he's so important to their offensive identity and success.

This offseason, the 49ers spent a first-round pick on wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, probably because Samuel misses games. If he goes down this year, Pearsall can fill in and replace lots of what Samuel does. And then next year, the 49ers can cut Samuel and save lots of money.

So maybe we'll see Samuel's best season yet. Maybe the pressure to perform and stay healthy will produce his best effort since 2021 when he earned his contract extension.

We'll see if a motivated Samuel can lead to a healthy Samuel.

Published
Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News