The San Francisco 49ers adopted the mantra "From Mobile to Miami" this season. Last year, the team spent January preparing to coach the Senior Bowl. This year, it spent January preparing to play in the Super Bowl.
The privilege of coaching the Senior Bowl is offered to teams who finish among the bottom of the league. That included the 49ers in 2018. San Francisco, of course, was among the best teams in the NFL this season. It's a turnaround that took many by surprise.
Still, there was an advantage to finishing among the league's worst teams in 2018. It gave head coach Kyle Shanahan, general manager John Lynch, and the 49ers a chance to further evaluate players like wide receiver Deebo Samuel, whom they drafted three months later.
Because of what led to that privilege, it's a path that Lynch doesn't recommend to others.
"To any other GM, I don't recommend the process we went through because we were bad enough that we got to coach the Senior Bowl," Lynch explained on Friday to Daniel Jeremiah and Rich Eisen on NFL Network. "As part of that process, we got to work with Deebo Samuel. He was a guy we had already established would be a tremendous fit, but we got an opportunity for a week to see just how strongly we felt about that.
"Then you come out of Mobile, and you say, 'OK, now we're excited to see him here (at the NFL Scouting Combine).' Every part of the test, he just continued to pass with flying colors.
"Sometimes being around, they say the guy can play or not play, but is he going to be a fit in our locker room with our culture, the things we believe in? And that became very evident and clear with Deebo right away down in Mobile and then furthermore here.
"It just because, 'Hey, we've got to find a way to make this guy part of us,' and it happened in the second round, and he played tremendous."
Samuel was mentioned several times on-air by Jeremiah as the wide receivers went through drills this week. That's because of the Niner receiver's success during his rookie campaign and the versatility he brings to Shanahan's offense.
NFL teams are working hard to identify and acquire the next Deebo.
"Position-less players is kind of where we're going with these guys who can do so many different things on both sides of the ball," Jeremiah added.
