49ers Rumors: Deebo Samuel '50-50' to Play with Injury vs. Lions in NFC Championship

Deebo Samuel could be in danger of missing the NFC Championship Game.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the San Francisco 49ers wide receiver is "50-50" right now to suit up Sunday against the Detroit Lions.

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan provided an update on Monday, telling reporters that Samuel did not suffer a fractured shoulder:

The Niners have been a different offense when Samuel has dealt with injuries previously this year. They went 0-2 in the regular-season games he missed due to a shoulder injury and narrowly escaped an upset against the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round after Samuel was forced out of that contest in the first quarter with left shoulder issues.

Shanahan told reporters after the win over the Packers that Samuel is a uniquely difficult player to replace:

"It's always a huge challenge when you lose one of your best players, but Deebo is a little more unique just because of the way we do use him. There's not many more people who can do that stuff. When he is a big part of the game plan—which he always is—and he goes out that early, you've got to move a lot of people around, do a number of different things. I thought we handled it better today than we did against Cleveland, but we still need to do it better than we did."

When healthy, Samuel caught 60 passes for 892 yards and seven touchdowns in the 2023 season, adding 225 rushing yards and five additional scores. Few players in football offer his impact as both a receiver and runner, and the Niners continue to find creative ways to get him the ball in space.

So replacing him is essentially impossible, but the Niners are still loaded with weapons and will need to rely even more heavily on running back Christian McCaffrey, wideout Brandon Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle as they seek a title.