Each Friday during the 2022 NFL and fantasy football season, Eric Karabell will bring his always-reasonable perspective to highlight the biggest fantasy football storylines heading into the weekend's games.
Everyone loves San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel, and for good reason. Samuel, the No. 17 pick in ESPN average live drafts this season (and seventh WR taken), is big and physical, and the 49ers use him in creative ways, as he piles on fantasy points as a traditional receiver but also as a running back.
The problem with this narrative is that Samuel hasn't been piling on fantasy points lately, as he battles injury and the team's depth, and while nobody should do something as drastic as benching Samuel (yet), one can ask if he remains an automatic weekly fantasy play. Hey, we're just throwing it out there!
After all, Samuel enters Monday's game against the Arizona Cardinals in Mexico City ranked 29th among wide receivers in fantasy points this season, fewer than injured Cardinal Marquise Brown, occasional Green Bay Packers provider Allen Lazard and his own teammate Brandon Aiyuk. Samuel scored double-digit PPR fantasy points in each of the first six games this season, though he surpassed 16 points in only one game.
The problem is he has been in single digits the past two games, while Aiyuk and recent acquisition running back Christian McCaffrey star around him and handle more volume.
The 49ers aren't exactly an offensive juggernaut to start with, relying on an excellent defense and the efficiency and turnover avoidance from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to guide them back to the playoffs, which seems eminently plausible. Fantasy managers get into a habit of playing their most popular, most rostered players they drafted early rather than potential top options. We're guilty of this in ranking players, too. Samuel was incredible last season. He caught 1,405 yards worth of passes on an NFL-best 18.2 yards per catch, ran for 365 yards and scored 14 total touchdowns.