This Deebo Samuel Stat is the First of It's Kind at His Position

The idea of players regularly playing multiple positions on offense is somewhat of an antiquated idea in the world of professional football. There are so many reasons not to put the added stress on players by asking them to play multiple positions that most teams don’t do it.

However, this season the San Fransisco 49ers have asked WR Deebo Samuel to step up and help contribute in other areas outside of the passing game. Turns out, the best running back on the 49ers is their No. 1 wide receiver. 

Elijah Mitchell is still listed as the RB1 for San Fransisco and leads the team with 759 rushing yards. But, over the last five weeks, Samuel has been cutting into his production a lot and is making the most of those extra opportunities. 

Over the first eight games of the season, Samuel had six total carries for 22 yards and one touchdown. Honestly, that is a lot for a wide receiver off the bat. But, starting in Week 9 against the Rams, the 49ers started to deploy Samuel in a different way. He had five carries in that game and has not had less than six in the four games that followed. He managed 7.2 yards per carry in that first game and scored a rushing touchdown in a blowout win over LA. 

Since that game, Samuel has had 28 total rushes for 211 yards. As if that wasn’t impressive enough for a wide receiver, Samuel has scored six rushing touchdowns in his last five games. He only has five receiving touchdowns on the season for Pete’s sake! 

Because of this unique usage, Samuel became one of only six players in NFL history to have 1,000+ receiving yards and 200+ rushing yards in a single season. That group consists of Marshall Faulk, Roger Craig, Christian McCaffrey, Charley Taylor, and Lionel James. Of the names on that list, just Samuel and James played wide receiver. 

Samuel is on pace to set another historic mark if he keeps seeing this kind of action out of the backfield. He could become the first starting wide receiver since the NFL merger to lead his team in rushing touchdowns. He already has a two TD lead over Mitchell with three games left in the regular season. Worth noting that Mitchell was out of practice on Monday with a combo of both a concussion and a knee injury. Even with an average of six carries per game, Samuel is having no trouble scoring touchdowns and is showing no signs of slowing down.

This week will be a big test for the 49ers rushing offense in general with the Titans on the schedule. Tennessee, a 3.5 point underdog at WynnBET Sportsbook, has the second-best rushing defense in terms of yards per game.