49ers GM talks Deebo Samuel: ‘He plays angry’

Deebo Samuel has long showed plenty in terms of testing numbers, work in camps, all that.

But coaches, from Steve Spurrier Jr. to Will Muschamp seemed to get the most from just watching him work on the field with the ball in his hands.

It was that kind of hands-on work that brought the former South Carolina football star to the attention of the San Francisco 49ers.

“We had an opportunity to have him down in Mobile at the Senior Bowl,” San Francisco general manager John Lynch told ESPN. “And that was very fortuitous because we got to see first and foremost, we love the person. He’s got a tremendous charisma to him. He’s always got a smile on his face.”

But it’s not the smile that got Samuel taken No. 36 overall, high in the second round.

“He plays angry,” Lynch said.

That’s certainly one way to describe the running style that helped Samuel post more than 2,000 career receiving yards.

In the press conference on Friday, Lynch descibed the 6-foot, 214-pound Samuel as a “thick” player who plays bigger than his height. His college coaches often called him a running back after the catch for the way he shed or ran through tackles.

“You just turn this guy’s game tape on and you see, I think one of the elite competitors in college football this year,” Lynch said. “You’re going to have to fight him. He’s going to fight for yards. I think that type of play, we’ve talked about it before, is contagious.”

In his career, Samuel caught 148 passes for 2,076 yards and 16 touchdowns, capped by a 62-catch, 882-yard, 11-touchdown senior season. He started that last campaign slowly, following a junior year undercut by several injuries, but rallied into form late in the year.

He also ran for seven touchdowns, scored another recovering a fumble on a punt and averaged 29 yard per kick return for his career, scoring four times.

He’ll join a team looking for more from its wide receivers. Kendrick Bourne and Dante Pettis were second and third on the team in yards, behind tight end George Kittle, but neither had more than 500.

That’s part of the reason Lynch liked what he saw in Mobile.

“This is a guy who has tremendous hands,” Lynch said. “He can catch it, and when he catches it, he has the juice to go. But he plays with a hunger. We call it WIT. What It Takes to win championships. He is a physical player.”