DO-IT-ALL DEEBO DESERVES MVP
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Deebo Samuel has a passer rating of 158.3 this regular season, but let’s not get carried away with Deebo hype.
Experts point out that Samuel as a passer does not seem comfortable in the pocket. Small sample size, sure, but his only pass, a 24-yard touchdown lob to Jauan Jennings last Sunday, was thrown while Samuel was on the run toward the right sideline.
So we’ll leave the best-passer debate to supporters of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Still, despite Samuel’s limitations as a passer, he deserves a place in the NFL MVP conversation.
What other player turned a team around this season like Samuel did the 49ers?
The 49ers were 3-5, riding a four-game losing streak, when 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan made Samuel a part-time running back against the Rams. The 49ers won, as Samuel caught five passes for 97 yards and one touchdown and ran five times for 36 yards and a touchdown.
Counting that game, the 49ers are 7-1 with Samuel doing double duty. The blemish was a tough loss to Tennessee, 20-17.
Surely there should be an award for what Samuel has done for the 49ers. Most Surprising Player? Most Impactful? Most Annoying to Opponents?
Opposing defenders would not be blamed if they yelled at Samuel, lining up in the backfield, What the hell are you? Make up your mind!
In the eight games he has played since he became a combo plate, Samuel has rushed 53 times for 343 yards, 6.5 yards per carry. And he passed that one time, on a run fake. It’s no wonder every time someone mentions Deebo Samuel to Rams All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, he jams a finger in each ear and shouts, “La-la-la-la!”
But forget the gimmicky awards listed above. How about some MVP love for Samuel?
Cooper Kupp, the Rams’ phenomenal wideout, is in the MVP chatter. He caught 145 passes in the regular season, Samuel caught “just” 77. Yet Samuel’s 18.2 yards per reception led the league, while Kupp’s 13.4 average wasn’t in the top 20.
Rushing? Kupp had one carry, for 18 yards. Samuel, even though he didn’t come out as a running back until halfway through the season, rushed 59 times for 365 yards and eight TDs, the most rushing TDs by a wide receiver in NFL history.
Also worth noting: Samuel was 2-0 vs. the Rams; Kupp was 0-2 vs. the 49ers.
So maybe, if you’re going to put a wide receiver in the MVP picture, it’s Deebo to paint in, not the Rams’ Kupp.
For the Cowboys, preparing for Sunday’s playoff game against the 49ers, Samuel is the Most Worrisome 49er. The Cowboys are mediocre at best against the run. For any team that struggles to stop the run, Samuel is a nightmare, because he has become perhaps the league’s most effective faker.
When Samuel lines up in the 49ers’ backfield and takes a fake handoff, he exerts a magnetic pull on defender — something like what happens when Stephen Curry has the ball for the Warriors — opening up holes for whoever does get the ball.
Shanahan’s decision to make Samuel a double-duty guy deserves a deeper probe at some point. Maybe it was sheer desperation. Either way, it was a stroke of genius. It’s one genie the Cowboys wish could be stuffed back into the lantern.
The change was unexpected. Before that midseason game against the Rams, Samuel, in his 30 NFL games, had rushed 28 times, for 207 yards.
The move to part-time running back not only unleashed Samuel’s full potential, it brightened the career of 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo. Samuel, as a runner and as a receiver, turns short stuff into long stuff.
Samuel is one of the league’s few wideouts who dish out more punishment than they absorb. Example: Against the Jaguars, Samuel turned a short rushing gain into a 25-yard touchdown run by straight-arming dangerous linebacker Myles Jack out of the picture.
After that game, Samuel’s second as a part-time runnng back, a local writer (maybe it was me) wrote, “Does anyone know if Samuel can throw?” Now we know. You’re welcome, Shanahan.
The running-back concept, who knows, maybe it was Samuel himself who planted the idea with Shanahan. The two chat often at the start of practice, during special-teams drills. Shanahan was asked recently what the two talk about.
“Sometimes it’s about how he’s feeling, it’s about the practice, sometimes it’s about the team we’re playing, sometimes it’s about his family,” Shanahan said. He added, “Deebo is an awesome guy to talk to. I’m his coach, I consider him a friend though, also.”
They are a great team, Shanahan and Samuel — as long as they’re both healthy. By giving his wideout heavy rotation at running back, the coach is upping the risk factor for a player with an injury history.
At running back, “you’re taking on the hit or getting hit on every play,” said Falcons doublethreat Cordarrelle Patterson.
To minimize injury risk, Shanahan might want to mix in more low-contact sprint-out pass plays. No sense putting limitations on what Samuel can do. As 49ers’ offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel said Thursday, Samuel’s game won’t be complete until he’s booming 55-yard punts.
McDaniel was being silly ... Right?