Deebo Samuel

Fantasy Upside
As ESPN's Mike Clay noted, like an absurdly large percentage of the 49ers' roster, Deebo Samuel suffered through an injury-plagued 2020 campaign. But when healthy, Samuel is a dynamic weapon for Kyle Shanahan's offense. He had the second-most receiving yards by a rookie in franchise history in 2019 with 802. In 2020, Samuel only played seven games, starting in five, but averaged a hefty 25 percent target share (8.2 per game) while also handling 4 percent of the team's carries. His 212 fantasy points were the 23rd-most among all wide receivers. And much like there is for teammate Brandon Aiyuk, there's ample reason to believe we haven't seen the ceiling here. Aside from the obvious, the fact that starting QB Jimmy Garoppolo missed most of the season forcing Samuel to work alongside two different backups in C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens,

Fantasy Downside Clay notes there was at least another issue worth pointing out: Samuel, Aiyuk and George Kittle played three full games together (Weeks 5-7), and the targets those weeks were as follows: Kittle (25), Samuel (19) and Aiyuk (17). Also, Samuel has seven total touchdowns in his first two seasons (while missing 10 games due to injury).

2021 Bottom Line
As dynamic as Samuel can be, he's often a short-range target and is asked to make something out of nothing regularly. There's definitely more value in his role for PPR leagues as Kittle and Aiyuk figure to be the favored red-zone targets.