So far this season, he has played 555 snaps split out as the outermost wide receiver, 222 in the slot, eight as an in-line ‘tight end’, and 93 as a running back. With Samuel, it’s about how he damages defenses when the ball winds up in his hands, no matter his starting position. It was about what they did without the ball as much as what they did with it. Their flexibility was a big percentage of their overall value. But that was the player’s value – as a moving chess piece that helped Brady identify coverages more than as an individual runner or receiver. They would move that player around to identify mismatches. During the heyday of the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots, the team would bring in a back whose receiving chops outdid their running skills. Smart teams have always sought crossover skillsets. The Niners offense now revolves around finding an ever-increasing number of ways to get the ball to Samuel, or leveraging his threat into easy yards for everyone else. Watch more highlights tonight on #FTTB /dwweo42ILo- Inside the NFL January 18, 2022 If he’s not, he’s as near as makes no difference.ĭeebo Samuel is a dominant weapon on offense □ told Kyle Shanahan □□□'□ □□! and put the ball in the box. He may be the finest running back and the finest receiver in the league, at least in terms of efficiency and explosiveness. Samuel is the San Francisco 49ers’ best running back and the team’s best receiver. In Deebo Samuel, the unicorn has finally arrived. These were professionals, masters of their craft there was no time for split duty. They didn’t need a running back to flex out as the outermost receiver, they had all the elite receivers they could handle. They didn’t need a receiver to line up at running back – they had a world-class running back to do that. In the college ranks, the likes of Tavon Austin and Percy Harvin embraced football’s move from a tough, between-the-tackles, thumping sport to one based on the principles of pace and space.īut in the NFL, coaches have always favored specialists over the hybrids. Getting the ball to your best athletes in space became the doctrine of offensive football. The spread revolution gave rise to tweener players, those who could align in the backfield as a running back or wriggle out to the slot (or wider) to catch passes. And yet, as a football collective, we’ve waited for the unicorn: The running back-wide receiver.
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