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How the 49ers Will Replace Deebo Samuel in their Offense

Finally, the 49ers made a move to drastically alter their offense.

Grant Cohn

Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Finally, the 49ers made a move to drastically alter their offense.

They traded Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a fifth-round pick. At one time, Samuel was the 49ers' offense. He was their best wide receiver and their best running back, and he carried them to the NFC Championship Game in 2021 when Jimmy Garoppolo was their quarterback. No small feat.

But when the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey in 2022, Samuel became somewhat redundant. And this past season, he looked noticeably less explosive. He was their worst running backs and one of their worst wide receivers.

Trading Samuel only will make the 49ers offense better because they won't have to continually force him the ball. But who will step up in his absence?

First, Ricky Pearsall most likely will replace Samuel as the starting Z receiver. That's the flanker, the one who lines up a yard behind the line of scrimmage and often goes in motion when the ball is snapped.

Pearsall won't be the threat after the catch that Samuel is (or was in his prime), but Pearsall will be significantly better than him at getting open and catching the ball. That's because Pearsall's route tree is much more developed and his hand-eye coordination is actually good.

At running back, if Jordan Mason leaves in free agency, Isaac Guerendo most likely will take Samuel's place as the primary change-of-pace running back. They're built similarly and Guerendo is much faster.

Overall, the 49ers will have more than 80 targets that usually go to Samuel that instead will get distributed to George Kittle, Jauan Jennings Brandon Aiyuk when he returns from his knee injury and Pearsall.

That's good news.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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