Samuel is willing to do whatever helps the team

During his five seasons in San Francisco, Deebo Samuel has been a human Swiss Army knife for the 49ers. Although he’s listed as a receiver, he’s also been known to get a few carries and the 49ers have even let him throw the ball a few times in his career.

With the NFL kickoff rule undergoing a major change this year, it sounds like Samuel would like the 49ers to give him a shot at another position: Kick returner.

“I wouldn’t mind doing it from the get-go,” Samuel said over the weekend, via 49erswebzone.com.

The 28-year said he’d be willing to do whatever the 49ers need: If head coach Kyle Shanahan wants to give him the full-time return job, then he’d be glad to take it, but if the 49ers just want him to return kicks in pivotal situations, then he’d be more than happy to do that.

“I’m a team-first player, so if Kyle [Shanahan] was like, ‘Hey, man, we don’t want you to do it full-time. We just use you whenever we really need it,’ I’m fine with that,” Samuel said. “But if you want to use me full-time, I’m all for that as well.”

Samuel actually has some experience returning kicks and most of it came last season. The receiver has returned a total of nine kickoffs in his career and six of those came in 2023 when he averaged 25.7 yards per return. With only six returns, Samuel didn’t have enough to qualify for the NFL’s official statistics, but if he had, his average would have ranked in the top-10 of the entire league.

Under the new kickoff rules, the return will feel almost like a play from scrimmage. Every member of the coverage team (except for the kicker) has to have their foot on the return team’s 40-yard line and they can’t move until the ball is fielded (or hits the ground in the landing zone), which means the returner should have some room to run once they field the ball.

Samuel is known for making big plays in the open field and he thinks he could utilize that talent on kickoffs.

“Looking at it, it’s kind of weird, but I feel like, on the side that we on, for us, the returning team, I feel like we have a real big advantage of you make one guy miss,” Samuel said. “I mean, it’s just you and a kicker, and nine times out of 10, the kicker’s not making tackles.”

Even if the 49ers don’t want to use Samuel as their full-time returner, it won’t be surprising at all if they decided to put him back there in key situations such as any possible playoff game.