San Fransisco 49ers third-year wideout Deebo Samuel broke out onto the scene once again during Week 1 against the Detroit Lions last Sunday. The wide receiver put up impressive numbers with 9 catches and a touchdown for a total of 189 yards, the second-highest receiving total by any Niners player on opening week. This comes as a relief to San Fransisco as Samuel once again looked like the promising player he previously showed flashes of whenever he was healthy.
In his rookie season, back in 2019, Deebo was touted as one of the best receivers out of the draft right next to A.J. Brown, DK Metcalf, and Terry McLaurin as the blossoming rookie put up 802 yards on 57 catches. However, the very next season, 2020, the injury bug that hit the rest of the Niners roster affected Deebo Samuel as he dealt with a nagging hamstring injury and a foot fracture to begin the season, resulting in him putting up a relatively subpar stat line of 391 receiving yards in just 7 games.
Now that Samuel is back, it seems as if the 49ers trust him, clear as day after the Lions game, and he has secured the majority of targets in the wide receiver room, with Brandon Aiyuk's recent struggles and injury problems. Deebo told NFL Now that he expected a great game last week, "I had a feeling that if everything goes as we planned, it [would] just fall out and I would have a little bit of targets in this game."
It seems as though the next matchup against the Philidelphia Eagles might prove to be a tad more difficult for Samuel and the 49ers in general. The Eagles faced the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 and put up a very impressive display in a rout as they claimed victory 32-6. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and the offense were obviously successful against the Falcons defense, but what might be more concerning for Deebo is the outstanding showing the Philadelphia defense showed against what's considered to be a dynamic offense in Atlanta with Matt Ryan and two star weapons in Calvin Ridley and Kyle Pitts.
The Eagles showed that they still had a very strong defensive line armed with Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox, who will make it incredibly hard for the Niners quarterbacks to get the ball out accurately and on time for the wide receivers. More importantly, Samuel seems like he will draw a matchup with star cornerback Darius Slay, an assignment he likely earned with his performance last week. Slay tends to do well against smaller outside receivers like Samuel, but it remains to be seen if he can deal with the explosive wide receiver's physicality.
Samuel says about this next week, "You can tell we [are] just trying to feed off last weeks win. It wasn't the win that we wanted due to the way the game ended, so we [are] just coming out here laser-focused, just locked in as a whole."
The 49ers as a team look to stay locked and undefeated Sunday against the Eagles in what looks to be a closer game than initially projected.