Kyle Shanahan says he was told that Deebo Samuel (knee/ankle) would be out "three-ish" weeks. That's not a word, but we can reasonably conclude that Samuel will miss Week 15, 16 and probably 17, perhaps playing in Week 18 if it's meaningful (it probably won't be) or if they want him to get some reps in before a Week 19 playoff game.
How might San Francisco's other two big cogs in the passing game, George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk, fare with Samuel out? We have some previous games from the past three years to look at.
Since 2020, Samuel has missed 10 games that at least one of the other two has been available for. Here's how they've performed in those contests.
Most interesting to me is Kittle. I'd never really thought about how much he's seemingly been hurt by Deebo being there to take away targets. He's had a number of good games with Deebo also on the field, sure, but look at his last four games that Deebo has been out: 23 catches for an average of 95 yards, with 3 touchdowns. Two of those games, as luck would have it, were against tomorrow night's opponent, Seattle .
| KITTLE AND AIYUK WITH NO DEEBO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Kittle | Aiyuk |
| 2020 | Ariz. | L 20-24 | 4-44-0 | Inactive |
| 2020 | at NYJ | W 31-13 | Inactive | 2-21-0 |
| 2020 | at NYG | W 36-9 | Inactive | 5-70-0 |
| 2020 | at Sea. | L 27-37 | 2-39-0 | 8-91-1 |
| 2020 | at N.O. | L 13-27 | Inactive | 7-75-1 |
| 2020 | at Dal. | L 33-41 | Inactive | 9-73-1 |
| 2020 | at Ariz. | W 20-12 | 4-92-0 | 1-15-0 |
| 2020 | Sea. | L 23-26 | 7-68-0 | Inactive |
| 2021 | at Sea. | L 23-30 | 9-181-2 | 3-55-0 |
| 2022 | at LAR | W 31-14 | 3-39-1 | 6-81-1 |
Kittle of course hasn't been a picture of durability himself over the years; he's also missed four of the games that Deebo missed. But I sure like Kittle over the next couple of weeks.
Aiyuk has also had some nice games with Samuel out, operating as more of a No. 1 wideout. He caught 6 balls and a touchdown in the game Samuel missed this season. He scored in three of the other games, and went over 70 yards four times. He also had a couple of dud games, with guys like Kendrick Bourne stepping up, but Aiyuk is more a clear No. 1 in the offense right now than he was in 2020.
Those games were with different quarterbacks of course. But if I have either Kittle or Aiyuk anywhere, and I do, they're starting me for the rest of the season.
--Andy Richardson