This is a tremendous move for the Washington Football Team, who are having themselves a great start to the off-season.
First the club added quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, and as we outlined here there are a number of reasons why that signing makes sense for the organization. But with a need at wide receiver, the Football Team made another move, adding WR Curtis Samuel, one of the more enticing wideouts available in free agency.
Ian Rapoport was among those reporting the terms of the deal:
#Panthers FA WR Curtis Samuel is expected to sign with the Washington Football Team on a 3-year deal worth $34.5M, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 17, 2021
Last year, his first season in Joe Brady’s offense, Samuel set career-high marks in receiving yardage, yards from scrimmage, receptions, first downs, rushing attempts, rushing yardage, and touches. Brady found a variety of ways to get Samuel involved in the offense, and teams looking for that type of Swiss army knife type of weapon are going to love what he did on film.
Purely as a receiver, Samuel can fit in an offense either as a slot or a Z type of player, who can be effective to all levels of the field and offer a complex and varied route tree. Samuel was very efficient on routes working over the middle, being used in a manner similar to how Brady used Justin Jefferson two years ago in the LSU offense. Samuel shows a knack for finding soft spots in zone coverage on routes working across the field, and can even go up and high-point the football in contested catch situations. He is a WR2 type of player in most systems, and even offenses that run a heavy dosage of 12 personnel would love to have him as one of the two wide receivers on the field.
And just think, his numbers last season could have even been better:
Friendly reminder Curtis Samuel would've gone for 1,500+ yards in 2019 with something resembling a professional QB under centerpic.twitter.com/i4yZIrksNr
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) March 10, 2021
Another thing that he brings to the table is toughness as well as versatility, and he put both on display on this play against his new team:
Curtis Samuel, that was tough. #KeepPounding
📺: #CARvsWAS on CBS
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/BVP8uIyKIx pic.twitter.com/i5rZThVx0i— NFL (@NFL) December 27, 2020
Scott Turner will love to design plays for Samuel, who now gets to operate with Terry McLaurin on the other side of the field. Washington is starting to put together a nice little offense, with McLaurin and Samuel on the outside, Logan Thomas growing into a solid NFL tight end, and running back Antonio Gibson and his own versatility. With a deep wide receiver draft class, Washington could find a third option at any point of the draft and really have a solid offense around their expected starting quarterback in Fitzpatrick.
