The 49ers on Monday got the good news that injured WR Deebo Samuel didn’t suffer any major issues when he was landed on during the team’s 35-7 win over the Buccaneers on Sunday. The club also said the expectation is for Samuel to return in the regular season, and head coach Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday shed some light on Samuel’s timeline for return.
“There’s four weeks left in the season,” Shanahan said in his press conference Tuesday. “I think they told me three-ish is the expectation, so, right in that area.”
Assuming Samuel does miss three weeks, the 49ers won’t have him for their games against Seattle, Washington and Las Vegas. He’d be on track to return for the season finale against Arizona.
Samuel is dealing with an MCL sprain, which is perhaps the best-case scenario considering how gruesome the injury looked. However, it’ll be interesting to see whether that last game against the Cardinals even matters for the 49ers and if that determines whether Samuel plays. They could be locked into their playoff seed by that point, which may incentivize the team to let Samuel get an additional week off.
Either way, the fact there’s some semblance of certainty that Samuel will be ready for the postseason, which is ultimately the best news for San Francisco.
