49ers will hold off on IR for Deebo (hamstring)

Neither did Mike Evans, who is dealing with Achilles tendinitis. These absences shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Evans is expected to miss Week 8 after aggravating his Achilles issue on Monday. Samuel is expected to miss “at least a couple of weeks” and has been sidelined for just one game so far. Jordan Watkins and Brandin Cooks are in line to start for the 49ers this week. What a time to be alive.

Samuel will be forced to miss Week 6 with a hamstring injury sustained in the team’s Week 5 win over the Seahawks, leaving the team extremely thin at wide receiver. They could get a small boost with Christian Kirk a candidate to be activated from injured reserve ahead of Monday’s game, although Mike Evans is also listed as questionable.

The 49ers go on bye in Week 8. Shanahan says that Robinson is more likely to return after that, in time to face the Raiders in Week 9. Robinson can be stashed in injured reserve spots, if need be, but he is not a must-stash type of player. Depending on how the 49ers’ wide receiver corps looks, Robinson can likely be snagged off waivers during the bye week for those in need at the wide receiver position.

Shanahan confirming this will be a multi-week absence isn’t surprising, but we still aren’t clear on just how much time he could miss. We’ll likely get a more specific timeline in the days ahead, but it sounds like we can safely assume Samuel will miss Week 6’s game against the Commanders and Week 7’s game against the Falcons. Jacob Cowing and Brandin Cooks could both be in line to see more work in the weeks ahead, with Cooks perhaps being the favorite to get the first crack at replacing Samuel. Cooks’ 11 routes run in the second half of Sunday’s game led all 49ers, including Mike Evans, and he found the end zone on a seven-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Niners ahead with just over 11 minutes left in regulation.

The MRI will help determine the severity of Samuel’s injury, but the 30-year-old receiver is likely looking at a multi-week absence after he was quickly ruled out of Sunday’s game. Samuel has caught 16 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns this season for the Niners while adding another 78 yards on nine carries. He seems unlikely to play in Week 6 against the Commanders, which means we could see an increased role for either Jacob Cowing or Brandin Cooks, who scored in Week 5’s win over the Seahawks.

That didn’t take long. Just moments after leaving the game, it was announced that Samuel had suffered a hamstring injury and would not return to the field. Shortly after being ruled out, Samuel was shown walking gingerly to the locker room with trainers. His day ends with a 2-21-0 line on three targets. Samuel also had two carries for four yards and a lost fumble, which came on the play he was injured on.

Samuel went down after being tripped up on a run play and remained down for an extended period of time after the play. It was hard to tell exactly what happened on the play, but Samuel was able to make his way to the sideline and could be seen sitting on the bench while being evaluated by trainers. We will provide an update on his status when we receive one.

Samuel was again a critically important part of the San Francisco offense. He scored his touchdown — his third of the year — on a well-designed red zone target from Brock Purdy. Looking far quicker and more fleet afoot than he did last year in Washington, Samuel has been a consistent flex option in 12-team leagues through Week 4. That should continue in Week 5, though the matchup is much tougher against the Seahawks secondary.

Samuel’s box score will looks strange to most, but that’s what happens when Kyle Shanahan tries out a hook-and-ladder play in the first quarter. Mike Evans caught a pass from Brock Purdy, lateraling the ball to Samuel, who sprinted 80 yards downfield for the score. Despite Evans (rib) leaving the game early, Samuel technically finishes with zero targets, though he did carry the ball twice for 14 rushing yards. With his final stat-line, he sets the record for most receiving yards without a reception in NFL history. Samuel will benefit if Evans misses time and would be in the high-end WR3 range for Week 4 against the Broncos.

The high-ankle injury will now cost the veteran receiver a minimum of four games, thinning an already reeling group of pass-catchers in San Francisco. Jacob Cowing is technically the next man up, although the offense appears more likely to concentrate on the remaining veterans.