Today we look at second round pick out of the University of South Carolina, wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

With their second round pick (36th overall), the 49ers selected wide receiver Tyshun "Deebo" Samuel out of the University of South Carolina. Samuel is an instant upgrade to a position group that lacks a talented route runner outside of Dante Pettis and a consistent and reliable threat over the middle of the field. Samuel has enough versatility for Shanahan's offense that his role should see him threaten every level of the field and as you'll see below, he excelled in each spot.

In some ways, the 49ers got the best possible receiver with their second pick but Samuel regularly showed up outside the top 5 but in the top of this receiver class, which was, by all accounts, a polarizing one. Samuel had 882 yards receiving on 62 receptions, and 11 touchdowns, scoring nearly 1-in-5 times he caught the ball.


He didn't really pop off the charts in testing at the combine. His 4.48 40-yard dash was in the 64th percentile of the class and he hovered around the middle to the bottom of the pack in nearly everything else tested. He did, however, post a vertical leap of 39 inches, which put him in the 87th percentile of the class and that is a trait that definitely shows up on film.



He showed that he can run and win on a variety of routes during the drills portion of the week and during the game.

Red zone threat

Samuel's biggest contribution to the 49ers could come inside the red zone, where he did most of his damage at South Carolina. All of the traits above combine to give the 49ers an advantage at the goal line with now two red zone receiver targets (Pettis being the other).

While did see a lot of press coverage, he didn't see a lot of bump-and-run coverage in college with defenders instead electing to play to what's called "soft shoe" coverage where the defensive back will slow play the route and try to mirror what the receiver does. This was a big mistake.

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Against Akron, the defender has taken away the in cut by playing with inside leverage and in that soft press technique mentioned above. It didn't matter.
Samuel used that leverage against the defender by attacking his outside shoulder and giving him a quick jab step and head fake outside to get the defender to commit. As soon as the defender widened with his stem, Samuel cut back underneath quickly and scored.

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On this play, the defender is head-up over Samuel with no help over the top. The running back motions out to the right and pulls the defense with him. Samuel threatens the outside and gets the defender to man turn like he's going to run with him to the pylon but Samuel swipes through the contact and cuts underneath on the slant.

The linebacker's flow to the running back fake swing pass and the safety steps toward that as well, leaving a small window for Samuel to catch the pass and score.

Even when fully contacted at the line, Samuel still displayed great strength to fight through it.


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The Clemson defense sent a seven-man pressure and the trips stack drew the bulk of the man coverage with the deep safety playing a wall technique on anything vertical from the stack. This left Samuel one-on-one with the corner. The corner initially jams Samuel and disrupts the timing of the route.

But Samuel fights through it anyways with his superior balance and strength and continues on the slant. Bentley throws a pass off his back foot directly to Samuel who scored one of his two touchdowns in this game.

Play strength/body control

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What Samuel lacks in size and height, he makes up for with strength and balance at the catch point and can win contested catches.

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On several of these throws, he shows that he can fight through contact, has good concentration in traffic, and displays the balance and body control needed to locate the sideline after the catch or maintain balance after snagging the pass out of the air while maintaining and never breaking his stride.

Versatility

Samuel's versatility extends beyond being a viable red zone target or a receiver who can run any down field route. His usage in other aspects of the South Carolina offense actually hindered his production, but still showed his play strength in that he is a tough runner to bring down.


He also has special teams versatility, showing he can cover on punt teams or return kicks as well, with four total kick return touchdowns.

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Areas of concern


There aren't many areas of concern with Samuel's skill set. He did have injury issues in college, leaving his junior year with a broken leg and having hamstring issues off and on. He played injury-free his senior year and was still considered a top five receiver heading into the draft.

On the field, he lacks the breakaway speed needed to outrun speedier defenders in the open field. He also did not do so well against physical bump and run coverage. There's no reason to expect that this would carry over consistently during the NFL season as he won't see bump and run coverage on every snap and not every team has the skilled defenders to be able to do that.

Outlook


Shanahan got himself another versatile weapon that he can use all over the field. He should not be relegated to a strictly slot receiver role like some folks have pigeonholed him into. What he lacks in speed and size he makes up for with technique, strength, and balance. Deebo likely figures to be at a minimum the number two receiver behind Dante Pettis, maybe the number three, but those roles don't mean much in Shanahan's offense anyways. No matter where he ends up, he's going to help quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo at all levels of the field and make the offense more multidimensional.
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