Is Kyle Shanahan To Blame For The Deebo Samuel Saga?

Reportedly, the standoff between Samuel and management isn’t just about money, although he certainly wants to be paid as much as or more than the league’s elite wideouts.

He is also apparently unhappy that head coach Kyle Shanahan used him more and more as a running back as the 2021 season progressed.

Is Shanahan at least partly to blame for Samuel wanting out?

He Has Done Well At Running Back

Whether the South Carolina native is a wide receiver who masquerades as a running back or vice versa, the fact is that he has been productive when he has lined up in the backfield.

As a rookie in 2019, he was used occasionally in that capacity, and in 14 carries he gained 159 yards and scored three touchdowns.

This past season, Samuel gathered 365 yards on 59 rushing attempts while scoring eight touchdowns on the ground.

That translates to 6.2 rushing yards per attempt, which would’ve been second in the NFL had he qualified.

At 6-feet tall and 215 pounds, Samuel falls somewhere between the build of a prototypical wide receiver and that of a running back.

The drawback is that NFL running backs take a lot of punishment and do not last that long.

Conventional wisdom says that such players fall off a cliff at age 30.

Samuel is now 26, and if he is used in the backfield more sparingly, he could have many more years left at a high level of play.

Why Has Samuel Been Used As A Tailback?

If playing running back even a fraction of the time is a bridge too far for Samuel, the question is why Shanahan had him do so this past season and whether he will continue to do so.

People have speculated that the coach has lined him up in the backfield to compensate for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo‘s inability to throw accurate passes beyond a certain distance.

Samuel has shown an ability to run routes and get open at a distance, and if Garoppolo cannot consistently connect with him in such situations, him having to play running back may have been Shanahan’s way of making sure he got the ball in key situations.

There is a quarterback controversy brewing in the Bay Area, and one way or another, Trey Lance could supplant Garoppolo at some point in 2022.

If or when that happens, it is unclear what or how good Lance will be, but he has shown some potential throwing the long ball.