49ers Fantasy Football: Is Deebo Samuel worth a spot on your bench?

Deebo Samuel was thought of to be a potential fantasy football sleeper in 2019. Well we are now five weeks into the season and he is yet to wake up from his sleep.

Now that we are five weeks into the regular season, you should start to have a better picture of your chances to make your fantasy football playoffs. Hopefully for some of you reading this you aren’t winless because it looks bleak for you at this point. For those of you who are dominating or flirting around .500, the spots on your bench become more valuable.

You have to make some tough decisions on some of your players that you’re waiting on to have a breakout game. One of those players who would fit under that category are the wide receivers of the San Francisco 49ers, specifically rookie Deebo Samuel. Coming into the draft, Samuel was regarded as one of the best wideouts.

However, he has hardly managed any real production outside of the week two. Against the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football, Samuel had a prime opportunity to have a big day since the Browns were without their starting cornerbacks.

#49ers WR snaps coming out of the bye week:

Dante Pettis - 63%
Marquise Goodwin - 61%
Deebo Samuel - 46%
Kendrick Bourne - 22%
Richie James - 8%

— Jared Smola (@SmolaDS) October 8, 2019

Unfortunately for Samuel, the game plan that Kyle Shanahan created didn’t have heavy usage of the wide receivers. It didn’t help that Samuel dropped one of his targets, which could have led to Shanahan losing interest in getting him involved.

It begs the question to ask, is Deebo Samuel worth a spot on your bench?

Samuel should be immediately dropped if you have him. Shanahan looks to his wide receivers as a third option in the passing game. The running backs and tight ends garner more attention for him. Even when the receivers do get targeted, the targets are shared all over. Releasing Samuel isn’t a knock on his talent because I do believe he’ll have a few breakout games.

However, the way the offense has been operated it just doesn’t make sense to waste a spot on your bench. You’re better off looking at someone who’s been performing consistently. So if you’re still banking on Deebo Samuel to be reliable, don’t. Letting him go is the best thing to do for your fantasy team.