{"id":1010999,"date":"2026-09-26T05:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1010999\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:42:17","slug":"why-shanahan-didnt-initially-believe-49ers-would-sign-deebo-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1010999\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Shanahan didn\u2019t initially believe 49ers would sign Deebo \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Shanahan<\/a> did not think the 49ers would have a real role for Deebo Samuel when free agency opened.<\/a> Three injuries later, that entirely has changed.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco on 49ers Game Plan, Shanahan explained just how crowded the 49ers’ receiver room looked when Samuel became available<\/a> — and why signing him did not initially make much practical sense.<\/p>\n

“When we went through free agency, I didn’t believe we were going to have the luxury to sign someone like Deebo,” Shanahan said. “We got Mike [Evans], we signed Christian Kirk earlier in free agency, we had a good rookie in Stribling, hoping Christian Kirk comes back healthy. Love D-Rob[Demarcus Robinson], and we had young guys in [Jacob] Cowing and Jordan Watkins. That made us really deep. It didn’t make a ton of sense — like, you got to bring Deebo here to be your one, two or three receiver.”<\/p>\n

Shanahan said he was honest with Samuel about that exact uncertainty during their conversations.<\/p>\n

“If there isn’t the right spot for you, dude, if you come here, we’re going to use you. We got a lot of receivers, so we can’t promise you an exact role,” Shanahan said. “But one thing I know for sure — you could be our kick returner, possibly a punt returner. We’re going to get you out there, use you as a running back sometimes, a receiver sometimes. It might not quite be the same because we’re pretty deep.”<\/p>\n

Samuel signed anyway.<\/p>\n

“When he heard all that, he still got excited. He liked the opportunity,” Shanahan said. “He was comparing it to other places. I knew he was comfortable with us, and he ended up thinking it was the thing for him.”<\/p>\n

The math has changed dramatically since. Ricky Pearsall’s season ended<\/a> before it started; De’Zhaun Stribling went down in Week 1 with an injury expected to sideline him for roughly 10 weeks,<\/a> and Robinson was hurt in Week 2<\/a> — leaving Samuel with a far larger workload than either side initially expected.<\/p>\n

“Now we truly do need him in those spots,” Shanahan said. “He’s always been good enough to be in that spot — we were just a lot deeper. I think it’s worked out well for Deebo that he gets a lot more opportunities now.”<\/p>\n

What began as a depth signing with an uncertain role has turned into exactly the kind of reunion Shanahan never fully expected to need — Samuel now positioned as one of the 49ers’ most essential pieces, not because the plan called for it, but because injuries made it necessary.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Shanahan did not think the 49ers would have a real role for Deebo Samuel when free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1011000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,1705,7,2812,13280,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":["post-1010999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-deebo-samuel","tag-football","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-matt-maiocco","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117335748920755603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}