Should the Commanders trade for Deebo Samuel

Evaluating all aspects of a potential deal for 49ers WR Deebo Samuel

Deebo Samuel is a popular name among Commanders fans and media right now. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the possibility of trading for the 49ers playmaker after San Francisco granted his request to seek a trade. The Commanders do have a need for more explosive playmakers on offense and have an obvious link with Samuel. General manager Adam Peters was part of the 49ers front office that drafted him in the second round back in 2019. Anthony Lynn is another link as he was on the 49ers coaching staff in 2022 and 2023. So should the Commanders trade for Samuel? It’s a complex situation, let’s dive into it.

Samuel just turned 29 in January and there are questions to be answered about his future production levels. Lots of reports from San Francisco last year suggested Samuel had perhaps lost a step and isn’t the player he once was. I don’t think he’s necessarily at the levels he was at in 2021 when he posted career highs in just about every category and was probably the biggest weapon in the NFL at that time. But I’m not sure the drop off is as drastic as some have made it out to be.

While Samuel’s production may have dropped off slightly from his previous seasons, he was still a very productive player capable of generating plenty of yards after the catch in 2024. The 49ers do a great job being creative and finding ways to use his versatility in order to get him good matchups. More importantly though, they find as many ways as possible to get him the ball in space in order to let him do what he does best, which is create after the catch.

On this play, the 49ers face a third and seven situation. Samuel aligns isolated to the right of the formation. He runs a shallow crossing route as part of a mesh concept, something the Commanders run a lot on third down under Kliff Kingsbury too. The Cowboys play man coverage which is perfect for a mesh concept. Samuel runs away from the trailing corner and makes the catch on the shallow cross just one yard past the line of scrimmage. However, the play generates a ton of space for him to work after the catch.

Samuel receives the pass at the 24 yard line, one yard beyond the line of scrimmage, He continues his momentum towards the sideline to keep running away from the trailing cornerback, but he also turns up the field to gain more yards. He picks up a first down as the corner can only dive at his ankles trying to stop him. Samuel then breaks the tackle of another cornerback before a third finally brings him down at the 10 yard line for a 15-yard gain on a one-yard pass.

His shiftiness in the open field combined with his physicality in breaking tackles makes Samuel the perfect option in the screen game.

On third and 18, the 49ers opt to play it safe by throwing a quick tunnel screen to Samuel, happy to punt the ball away afterwards. Samuel receives the ball and the 49ers do well to get multiple blockers out in front. Samuel squeezes between two blocks and gets into the second level of the defense. From there, he looks to bounce outside but has to break through two tackles in order to do so. Just when it looks like he’s about to go down, Samuel quickly bursts up the sideline, picking up a few more yards before being forced out of bounds for a 15-yard gain.

Now he didn’t pick up a first down, but he did set up a fourth and three from midfield. The 49ers opted to punt in that situation, but we’ve seen Dan Quinn be aggressive all season in those fourth and short situations and Jayden Daniels has been excellent at converting them. So having someone like Samuel that can turn a third and extra long into a fourth and short would be huge for the offense to help them overcome negative plays like penalties. You can see how Samuel would translate to the Commanders offense on things like run-pass option plays as the Commanders use a lot of bubble and tunnel screens as part of RPOs to help lighten the box.

What intrigues me the most with Samuel is his ability to operate out of the backfield. Kliff Kingsbury was very creative with his backfield sets last year, often using two running backs on the field at the same time. Austin Ekeler would often play the role of the second running back that would sometimes run routes from the backfield or move out to the slot. Jeremy McNichols played a similar role when Ekeler was out and even receiver Olamide Zaccheaus spent some time in the backfield too. The 49ers used Samuel in a similar way, putting him in the backfield to create matchup problems for the opposing defense.