Second-round pick Samuel makes good first impression
Wide receiver, taken in second round, gives fans reason for excitement
SANTA CLARA >> Marcus Lattimore, drawing from his own experience as a 49ers draftee, knows exactly what advice to give Deebo Samuel as he leaves their South Carolina roost.
“Better start looking for an apartment now,” Lattimore said in a phone interview Wednesday night. “He’s so excited, until he sees those prices. He’s tight with his money.”
Samuel, the 49ers’ second-round draft pick, gave fans reason to be excited with how he looked Friday as rookie minicamp began.
Lattimore’s been there, done that. Well, he did as much as he could.
He was South Carolina’s star running back when his NFL future got robbed by a gruesome knee injury in 2012. Still, the 49ers spent a 2013 fourth-round draft pick on him. Exhaustive rehab followed. Then, midway through the 2014 season, he retired without ever wearing a 49ers uniform (No. 38).
Lattimore took his upbeat and inspiring mindset back to South Carolina, and his current role as the Gamecocks’ director of player development got him “real close” with Samuel (No. 19 for the Niners).
“He’s been like the big brother at school for me,” Samuel said. “Any time I needed advice, he’s one of the guys I always went to talk to. He has an understanding of what I’ve been through in life and has an idea what’s been going on.”
They grew up 15 minutes apart just outside Spartanburg, S.C., so “obviously I heard of him and how talented he was,” Lattimore recalled.
They didn’t meet, however, until Samuel’s January 2014 recruiting visit to South Carolina, just after Lattimore’s “redshirt” rookie season with the 49ers. “We share a bond coming from the same place. It’s like a big brother, little brother thing,” Lattimore said.
Lattimore’s job is to help prepare South Carolina’s players for life after college, when only a couple will get a look from the NFL. Lattimore, 27, has mapped out a plan for Samuel, 23.
“Honestly, something I always talk to with him is he can be a Hall of Famer if his mind is in the right
place,” Lattimore said.
Samuel’s reaction to those words: “He didn’t tell me that. But he sees the way I work and the way I go about the game.”
Samuel, as shown on his Instagram story, worked hard this past week ahead of his debut on the 49ers fields. He labored in South Carolina’s weight room, practice field and sand pit, where he ran square routes with the passion and precision needed for Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
“He’s going to a big city, there’s a lot he can experience, and he can have fun every night if he wants to,” Lattimore said in a warning tone. “He should keep a good, positive circle around him while there.
“I’ve told him that you won’t earn anybody’s respect until you show them your work ethic.”
Samuel comes from a South Carolina pipeline that produced five 49ers draftees from 2011-15: Lattimore, Chris Culliver, Bruce Ellington, Busta Anderson and Mike Davis.
After drafting Samuel 36th overall and having coached him in January’s Senior Bowl, Shanahan raved about Samuel’s physical style, how it “hurts for people to tackle him.” He is a 5-foot-11, 214-pound play maker, especially in the open field.
The 49ers need such an asset, and whether it’s to fill the void at flanker or compete in the slot, Samuel is so versatile and intelligent he can play where needed, Lattimore said. Anquan Boldin excelled in that type of role in Lattimore’s 49ers days, and Samuel even listed Boldin (along with Golden Tate) of comparable receivers.
“Boldin was the most disciplined player I’ve ever seen,” Lattimore said. “Deebo has the capability of that, but he’s also so explosive. And when he runs the ball, he’s like a running back. He has everything you want.”
“That’s been my mentality since I started playing,” Samuel said. “My father told me, ‘Every time you get the ball, try to put it in the end zone.’ That’s my mindset every time I touch it.”
Lattimore, by the way, is loving how his life is playing out. He and his wife, Miranda, have a standard poodle, and he might pursue a degree in sports sociology or psychology. Whenever he imagines of a NFL career with healthy knees, he does so “in a fun way, not a depressing way.”
He implored that positive mindset upon Samuel not long ago. Samuel broke his lower left leg three games into 2017 and then
a foot injury thwarted his comeback, putting on hold his NFL ambitions.
“He cares,” Samuel said of Lattimore. “He has an idea what it feels like to be injured and have the game taken away from you. He reached out and I took all the advice he gave me and got rolling.”
“He was not in a good place for a good bit of time, and rightfully so,” Lattimore said. “That’s devastating.”
Samuel’s comeback last season — 11 touchdowns among 62 receptions — showed his drive to overcome injury. It’s an example why Tyshun Samuel still hasn’t outgrown the “Deebo” nickname, which his dad, Galen, gave him in reference to the neighborhood bully in the 1995 cult film, “Friday.”
All of it was enough to attract the 49ers.
“Every team loves play makers,” Samuel said. “I go out there and give it my all every time I’m out there. Even off the field I’m the same person, I’m smiling, laughing around and an easy guy to get along with.”
So says a guy who’s had the same five best friends since second grade, not to mention a certain guardian angel back at South Carolina who six years ago also was a 49ers rookie.