In order to dial up a trick play in the NFL, a coach must have unbridled confidence in all of the key players involved. One slight misstep and that coach becomes a social media laughingstock.
So when 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan called this play during Super Bowl LIV in February, he clearly had 100 percent trust in the throwing arm of … rookie wide receiver Deebo Samuel? That’s right, the only other person Shanahan trusted to throw a pass in the Super Bowl was a 24-year-old rookie who had exactly two pass completions in his entire collegiate career at South Carolina.
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Samuel was all set to throw his first NFL pass, but the play didn’t develop to his liking and he pulled it down and scrambled for a first down.
This play first could have been thought out way back when Shanahan first got the chance to work with Samuel as a coach of his at the Senior Bowl.
Knowing Shanahan, he likely has had that play drawn up all season and kept it in his bag until the very last second. So why was the rookie the man chosen to be the 49ers’ wildcat quarterback in the most important game of the season?
Let’s just say he’s done it before, albeit in a much-less pressurized environment.
Here Samuel is in 2018 in a game against Kentucky, as he hooked up with 2020 Raiders’ third-round draft pick Bryan Edwards for a touchdown.
It wasn’t a bullet, but the ball traveled over 20 yards in the air and was put in the perfect spot. But that wasn’t Deebo’s first pass attempt in Columbia, as he also found Edwards in 2016 for a touchdown in garbage time against Clemson.
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Samuel finished his college career 2-for-2 through the air, with 46 passing yards and two touchdowns, good for an absurd 632.2 quarterback rating. Go ahead and read that back one more time. 632.2.
But in all seriousness, Shanahan likes to occasionally have his wideouts throw a pass, as we saw with Emmanuel Sanders in Week 14 of last season against the New Orleans Saints.
The 49ers found so many creative ways to get Samuel the ball in his rookie season, and he delivered in just about every spot. But don’t be surprised if we see Samuel rolling out to throw sometime in 2020.