San Francisco 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel’s status for this weekend’s NFC Championship Game against the Detroit Lions remains uncertain, coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday. Samuel suffered a shoulder injury in his team 24-21 playoff win against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night but the team said he does not have a fracture.
The 49ers said they hope to have a much firmer idea of Samuel’s potential availability for the NFC title game by midweek.
“It wasn’t broken, so that was a real good sign,” Shanahan said of Samuel’s shoulder. “But it’s still hurting too much for us to have a good idea of how it’s going to heal up this week. So we’ve just got to be patient, see how he feels on Wednesday. And based off of (whether or not) it’s improving, we’ll see if he has a chance for the game or not.”
The 49ers are currently formulating their offensive game plan. Wednesday is installation day during practice and Thursday features the heaviest practice of the week.
“If we know he’s not available, then it makes it easier from a game-planning standpoint,” Shanahan said. “But if there’s any chance, which I think we’ll have a better idea of Wednesday, obviously there’ll be things in (the game plan) for him.”
The 49ers were pleased with fill-in contributions from veteran receiver Chris Conley against the Packers. Conley delivered a key block on running back Christian McCaffrey’s 39-yard touchdown run before catching a 17-yard deep out from quarterback Brock Purdy on the game-winning drive.
“Conley — that’s why guys like him and Willie Snead are here,” Shanahan said.
Samuel left the NFC divisional round game twice before being ruled out with a shoulder injury to begin the third quarter. The shoulder injury occurred midway through the first quarter, and he was initially ruled questionable to return. At the start of halftime, he was seen without his jersey or shoulder pads and was soon ruled out for the rest of the game.
He first left during the first quarter after taking a hard hit to the head. He entered the blue medical tent and cleared concussion protocol before returning to the sideline.
Samuel’s day ended with two catches and 24 yards. He recorded 892 receiving yards and 225 rushing yards during the season, tallying 12 total touchdowns.
Losing Samuel mid-game added to 49ers’ frustrations
Obviously, not having Samuel in the receiver rotation is bad for the 49ers. They lost all three games he either missed or couldn’t complete due to a Week 6 shoulder injury. But losing him early in a game, as was the case Saturday, is worse. Shanahan said it led to all sorts of play-call challenges, including one in which Jauan Jennings ended up lining up in the backfield and getting a carry. (Result: a 1-yard loss).
More than that, Purdy could have used Samuel on a day in which the Packers were playing soft coverage and Purdy’s accuracy was off due to the rain and a wet football. The play calls likely would have been similar to Week 3’s when Purdy targeted Samuel 12 times against the New York Giants and Samuel finished with 129 receiving yards. — Matt Barrows, 49ers beat writer
Samuel has extra motivation to play the Lions
Samuel doesn’t need any extra motivation to play on Sunday. His team is in the NFC Championship for the third straight year, after all, and the two previous games have ended in heartbreak for him and the 49ers. But there’s an extra layer of sizzle to a 49ers-Lions matchup given that Lions safety C.J. Gardner Johnson, a former Eagles player, has been feuding with Samuel since the regular season.
“You better hope all that talk you be doing when we see you all, whatever (playoff) round it may be … because I can guard you,” Gardner-Johnson said during an Instagram Live session. “You can’t run routes. You’re a running back. You’re a running back. I ain’t gonna sit here and play with you, little boy. Just because you got a little bag, people give you a little clout, and then you ain’t nothing, bro.”
Samuel is in the midst of a long-running spat with Philadelphia defenders stemming from last year’s NFC Championship. That added some extra juice to the teams’ Dec. 3 meeting this season. A fired up Samuel finished with 138 total yards and three touchdowns in that game. — Barrows
Required Reading
(Photo: Michael Owens / Getty Images)
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