Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Deebo Samuel showed off his toughness as he muscled his way to an impressive 48-yard sideline reception with Arizona Cardinals defenders bringing him down. The San Francisco 49ers' rookie receiver left the game after that play with a shoulder injury, was labeled as "questionable" to return, but did so in the fourth quarter.
Samuel finished the game with a team-leading and career-high 134 receiving yards off of eight catches and 10 targets and was a big reason why the 49ers were able to mount a comeback win, beating the Cardinals 36-26.
And this was after an eight-catch and 112-yard performance during Week 10 against the Seattle Seahawks.
One of Samuel's defensive teammates has been impressed with the receiver and what he has been able to do in his first NFL season.
"He's fearless," veteran cornerback Richard Sherman said after the win. "Deebo Samuel is fearless. He'll run through any catch. You get some receivers running across the middle, and they're looking for who's going to hit them. Deebo is looking for who he's going to hit. That's a much different mentality for most people.
"It's almost like you expect him to break the tackle when he catches the football, and it takes a tremendous amount of trust in your quarterback, a tremendous amount of trust in your abilities to be able to play like that because some of the plays, they're drawn up [with] him running into traffic.
"He's running into a safety who's breaking, and it could be a huge hit, and he's not wincing, he's not crunching up. He's running through it, catching the ball, and keeping going. That's a fearlessness that can't be coached and can't be taught. You either have it, or you don't."
Samuel now has 38 receptions for 473 yards with a touchdown through nine games and six starts and is becoming one of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's favorite targets.
San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch jumped on KNBR this morning and discussed several topics. Among them was an injury update on second-year wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who he believes may miss games early on during the upcoming season.
Samuel suffered a Jones fracture in his left foot during a player-organized practice in June while in Tennessee.
"Deebo was really working," Lynch said on the Murph and Mac show. "That's the wonderful thing we've learned about this kid ... He's a worker. He wants to be great at football, and that sure showed in his first year. But I think it's even showed more on his desire to be great.
"He was working tremendous when our players were down in Nashville doing some workouts that Jimmy (Garoppolo)
NFL teams have until August 16 to reduce their rosters to 80 players before padded practices in training camp begin. After an initial report from The Athletic that stated the San Francisco 49ers planned to remain at 90 players right now, the team started the process of reducing its roster count.
The 49ers announced the following moves.
The following players have been placed on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List:
DL Ronald Blair III
WR Shawn Poindexter
C Weston Richburg
DL Kentavius Street
DL Jullian Taylor
The following players have been placed on the Active/Non-Football
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel is less than two months removed from the Jones fracture of the left foot suffered during a player-organized practice in Tennessee. He recently showed off his rehabilitation progress as he works on putting pressure on the injured
