5 players 49ers can’t afford to lose to serious injury in 2022

No. 3: 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel

Again, going back to 2020, the Niners experienced an ominous sign of things to come when they watched wide receiver Deebo Samuel suffer a Jones fracture in his foot during the offseason, which cut into his ability to be available for the start of the regular season.

And when Samuel suffered a hamstring injury midway through the year against the New England Patriots, it was yet another setback amid a 2020 campaign that completely derailed the offense’s fortitude.

Samuel appeared in only seven games that year. And while there were certainly plenty of other problems plaguing San Francisco’s offense, it’s certainly easy to link the 49ers finishing 21st in scoring that season in light of missing one of their best offensive pieces.

2021, Samuel’s first All-Pro season, showed just how important he is to Kyle Shanahan and Co. And while the Niners do have a number of other top-performing pass-catchers who’d likely make up for any lengthy absence, there’s no getting around the fact Samuel helped engineer a dynamic offense last season with his multifaceted ground-aerial threat.

San Francisco might look to Samuel as more of a pass-catching weapon than a rusher in 2022, but that still doesn’t take away the fact it can’t lose him for any serious length of time this season.