After taking a noticeable step back in production last year, Deebo Samuel is prepared to bounce back stronger than ever for the 2023-2024 NFL Season.

When the San Francisco 49ers drafted Samuel with the 36 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, many were unsure whether the 49ers selected the correct receiver. Some felt they should have gone with the ultra-productive Ole Miss wide receiver A.J. Brown, while others were blown away by Brown’s college teammate D.K. Metcalf’s NFL combine performance, and felt that he would be a more ideal fit in San Francisco.

At the end of the day, however, the 49ers selected South Carolina’s Samuel and the 49er faithful were left to put their utmost trust and confidence that head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch had done all their homework before sending in their pick.

After Deebo’s rookie year, fans grew excited at the idea that he could quickly develop into the number one weapon on the team. During those first 15 games played, the rookie managed to haul in an impressive 57 receptions for 802 yards and three receiving touchdowns, along with 14 carries for 159 yards and three rushing scores.

All those who’d wished the 49ers had chosen differently during round two of the 2019 NFL draft weren’t feeling too badly while watching Deebo’s inspiring production during his rookie season.

The following year, however, Deebo was battling through numerous nagging injuries, which wound up hampering him greatly during his second season in the league. He ended up playing only seven games, catching 33 balls for a measly 391 yards and one touchdown. It was a disappointing season for the rookie, to say the least. However, it was also an extremely disappointing season for the team as a whole. In 2020, it was reported that the 49ers had the second most injuries of any NFL football team ever over the past 20 years. During that season, nearly half of their talented roster missed significant playing time battling through a multitude of injuries. Therefore, the spotlight was not focused very heavily on Deebo’s discouraging second season in the NFL.

Fast forward to the 2021 NFL season. The 49ers have one of, if not the most dominant defensive units in the entire NFL. Their offense is above average as well. Everyone knows just how scary they can be, especially given the fact that they made an appearance in the Super Bowl just two seasons prior.

Samuel began the season red-hot, oftentimes putting the entire offense on his back, as he constantly discovered more ways to force himself into the endzone. People were unsure how long his production would last, however, especially after the 49ers season started to sink.

Following the first two games of the season, the 49ers ended up going on a four-game losing streak, with a couple of embarrassing losses to teams they were projected to defeat.

The very next week, the 49ers are up against the Chicago Bears. It’s third and 20  to go. The 49ers are down 16-9 with seven and a half minutes left to go in the third quarter. Deebo gets a screen pass five yards behind the line of scrimmage. Normally, teams only call this play in order to get as many yards back as possible, accepting the fact that they aren’t going to complete a 20+ yard throw when the defense knows to stay back. However, Shanahan has always known how talented Deebo has been, and probably wasn’t even all too surprised when Deebo ended up taking the screen pass for an 83-yard gain, which wound up leading to a 49ers score and a momentous comeback.

That season, Deebo finished off with an exceptional year, showcasing his explosive athleticism playing as the alpha dog receiver in San Francisco, while even running with the ball in the backfield, knocking over defenders like a bowling ball with his unyielding tenaciousness and tremendous physicality. Deebo got his nickname because he is an absolute bully to defenders when on the field, and it sure showed in his stellar 2021 season, during which time he was electric with the ball in his hands.

Throughout that 16-game stretch that earned him All-Pro recognition, Deebo accumulated 77 catches for 1,405 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns, along with an additional 59 carries on the ground for 365 yards and eight rushing touchdowns. Oh yeah, and he also threw a touchdown for over 30 yards in the air to help the 49ers clinch the playoffs during the final game of the regular season as well.

When head coach and offensive play-caller Shanahan chose to play Samuel at running back during the year, Samuel chose to embrace his role, happy to set the tone early and often in games, and proud to call himself the league’s best “wide back” (wide receiver/running back).

It didn’t take very long for Samuel to emerge as a fan favorite during the 2021 NFL season, as he managed to put up a touchdown in practically every single game he played.

When the 49ers were ultimately defeated in the NFC Championship that year, the faithful were extremely disappointed, and Deebo was even seen in tears after the game, as he did everything he could to give the 49ers the chance to win.

However, as disappointing as the end of the 2021 season was, everyone knew the 49ers were still a heavily loaded roster, and that they had a very good chance to run it back with mostly the same squad.

When it comes to the offseason though, fans were wildly concerned when noticing Deebo had removed the 49ers from his Instagram account. Very soon after, it was revealed that Deebo had requested for a trade. The entire fanbase was devastated. People thought the writing was on the wall and that Deebo’s time in SF was sadly coming to an end.

However, the only reason Deebo requested a trade is that he and the 49ers had trouble agreeing on a long-term contract extension, and Deebo wanted to put pressure on the organization to get that done in a timely manner, especially because of what he felt he deserved after the incredibly special season he had just delivered.

The night of that year’s NFL draft, 49ers fans stared at the television in anticipation of what would happen, as rumors were buzzing that the Jets were highly interested in trading for the star receiver in exchange for one or two of their early draft picks.

In the end, the 49ers were unwilling to part with one of their premier playmakers on offense and wound up striking a long-term extension very late into the offseason that ended up satisfying both parties at hand.

However, because Deebo had been away from the facilities for so long, he didn’t get the chance to practice with the team and familiarize himself with his new quarterback, second-year player Trey Lance. He came to camp in worse shape than he would have liked and didn’t like the way he ended up performing, especially when compared to the phenomenal stats he had put up just one season prior.

Last year, Deebo finished the season with 56 catches for 632 receiving yards and two receiving scores, along with 42 carries for 232 yards and three rushing touchdowns. While that is certainly not a bad year for a wide receiver by any means, Deebo was still unhappy with his performance, calling last season simply “awful” in “every aspect.”

Perhaps his coming to camp late and not in the right shape had something to do with it, but after trading for star running back Christian McCaffrey in the middle of last season, the 49ers started utilizing all the star power they had on offense in a variety of creative ways.

Regardless, Samuel is on a mission to bounce back this year and produce much more like his 2021 self, declaring in a recent interview that “I’d say this is probably the best shape that I’ve been in since the 2019 year.”

After all the off-season drama that took place before the start of last season, Deebo has been at practice and doing everything he can in order to better his game.

For a team with expectations as high as theirs, the San Francisco 49ers are going to need all the help that they can get if they want to call this season a success, and Samuel is remarkably determined to do whatever he can to help the 49ers get back to the Super Bowl and win while making a lasting impact for this team.

With the twenty-sixth pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected Calvin Ridley. Four years later, in the middle of the 2022 season, he’s traded to Jacksonville. Now, after being reinstated back into the NFL, he’s looking to make the Jaguars a serious playoff contender.

Ridley, who is currently 28 years old, has been battling adversity all his life.

Kicking off his football career with 64 receptions for 821 yards and ten touchdowns in his rookie season, many Falcons fans grew excited that their team had selected a potential star with the twenty-sixth pick of that year’s NFL draft. He followed up his stellar rookie season with 63 catches for 866 yards and seven touchdowns, having played three fewer games in 2019. Then, during his breakout season in 2020, a season in which he played 15 games, Ridley finally registered his first 1,000-yard season in the league, accumulating 90 receptions for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns, while gaining worldwide recognition as one of the top wide receivers in the league.

The following season, after having played only five games in 2021, the Falcons announced that Ridley would be out the following week due to “personal reasons,” and then continued to rule him out week by week for the remainder of the season. It was later revealed that Ridley left the team in order to go and focus on his “mental well-being.”

At the time, no one knew exactly what Ridley had been dealing with, but respected the fact that he was trying to set his mind right and focus on getting himself better.

In early March 2022, before the NFL season began, it was announced that Ridley had been suspended indefinitely as a result of him violating the NFL’s gambling policy and would remain out of the league for at least the 2022 NFL season.

Fans were devastated when the news broke. After sending former teammate Julio Jones to the Tennessee Titans, Ridley was viewed as the clear alpha dog receiver in Atlanta. Everyone knew from his mighty 2020 breakout season the elite potential that resided in Ridley. Following that tremendous fifteen-game stretch of his career, many argued that Ridley was the number one route runner in the entire NFL. Period. That year, he was so dominant, in fact, that in early November 2022, the Jacksonville Jaguars were willing to pull the trigger and make a trade to acquire Ridley before the NFL trade deadline passed, even though they weren’t fully certain when Ridley may have been allowed to play another game in the NFL.

In February 2023, Ridley applied for reinstatement. On March 6, the NFL officially announced his reinstatement back into the league. However, many Jacksonville fans are still concerned that after sitting out from the game for over a full season and a half, Ridley may not come back the same player he was.

In an attempt to assuage these worries and shed some light on all that’s happened with Ridley since deciding to leave his team after week five of the 2021 NFL season, Ridley wrote an article in the Player’s Tribune, detailing the immense challenges he’s faced over the past few years and his great regret for what he described as “the worst mistake of my life.”

The very first thing Ridley wrote about in his letter is an admission of guilt. He knows that he “f—ed up.”

“This is hard for a dude like me to talk about,” Ridley expressed in the beginning of his article. “But I want to be real with everybody. Back then, I was depressed. I was battling anxiety. I didn’t even want to leave my house. Football was the only thing that ever gave my life meaning, and I couldn’t even find any joy in that at the time. Honestly, I couldn’t even get up off the chair in my living room. Everything was just … dark.”

In discussing the beginning of his battle with depression, Ridley proclaimed that it started back in 2020, the year he firmly established himself as one of the league’s premier receivers.

During his first two seasons in the NFL, Ridley wrote how he played through bone spurs and got himself through it with painkillers. In the middle of year three, however, during week eight, Ridley recalled looking at his former teammate Julio Jones and recognizing that something was seriously off. When he received his MRI though, his trainer had informed him that it was only a bone bruise. Ridley continued to play for the remainder of the season, taking Toradol shots every Sunday before game time. He was determined to not miss games just because of a bruise.

It wasn’t until after the season when the entire staff got fired and a new trainer came in, that Ridley got sent to a specialist in Green Bay, who informed him that his foot was indeed broken, which meant that Ridley had been playing with a broken foot for the majority of the 2020 season.

When Ridley discovered the news, he was distraught. Ridley recalled how it was only a couple of months before the beginning of the 2021 season. He acknowledged that he was the number one weapon on his team now with Julio traded to Tennessee, and recalled that he felt he was under a mountain of pressure. He got the recommended surgery and came back to play as soon as he was cleared, but showed up to training camp “mentally drained.” He even recalled struggling to plant his foot into the ground at camp, constantly reminding himself that if he took a pill, he could run at his normal speed.

When he’d arrive home after the games, Ridley’s two-year-old daughter would come charging up to him with an abundance of energy and excitement. However, Ridley was coming home feeling shattered and broken. He remembered not even being able to do anything other than lie down in a dark room by himself.

That’s the first time Ridley knew something was clearly wrong. He felt the anxiety settling in hard and fast, but decided to shake it off and play through the season with more shots and pills. As a leader of his team, Ridley felt determined to do his job and “grit it out.” However, suiting up for week one of the 2021 season, Ridley stated how he felt like “a shell of myself, but I played.”

Following the game, Ridley arrived back home with his wife and daughter, only to notice a large group of people piled up outside his home. His front door had been kicked into and police cars were all over the street.

Ridley and his family quickly discovered that their house had been robbed. Ridley recalled him and his wife being relatively calm at first, recognizing everything stolen were items that could be replaced. However, when they took a good look at the security footage and noticed a group of men entering their home armed with guns, Ridley recalled being shaken up. His wife was traumatized and couldn’t sleep at night for some time following the incident. She couldn’t stand it when her husband had left home.

That’s when Ridley began to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Following the incident, Ridley went back to focusing on football. However, when he entered into the team facility and was reminded that everyone was getting prepared to go and play in London, he realized he didn’t want to leave his family behind. That’s when he finally broke down and informed the team that he needed to spend some time away from the game.

Ridley began speaking to a therapist almost immediately after, diving in deep to all that’d been swimming rapidly upon his mind. They spoke about certain things Ridley claimed he wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about to his own family.

Since the age of eight years old, when he and his three younger brothers were dropped off at a foster home, Ridley has led a challenging life. When he and his siblings would ask what’d been going on, all they were told was ‘Your mom and dad went away for a while. You need to stay here.” That’s when Ridley first developed his true passion for the physical sport, claiming “that’s when football really saved my life.”

Making it into the NFL was “life-changing” for Ridley. In his article apologizing for tarnishing the game, Ridley stated that he “f—-ed up. Period. It was in a dark moment. I wasn’t trying to cheat the game.”

Anytime he would get asked what was he thinking when deciding to violate the NFL’s gambling policy and placing bets on his own team, the only answer he’d give is “I wasn’t.”

“When you’re depressed, you’re not thinking about anything in the future,” Ridley proclaimed. “You’re just trying to get through the day.”

Reflecting over the time when the NFL investigators had brought him in, Ridley recalled that it “was probably the worst day of my life. Seeing my mom googling my name … and everything people were saying about her son…. That broke me down, man. But honestly, maybe I had to go through all of it. Maybe I had to hit rock bottom so I could get healthy. Thank God, with the help of my therapist, I was able to understand what was happening to me. I learned the names for the things that I was feeling — stress, depression, anxiety — and how to cope with those emotions.”

Now, Ridley claims he’s stronger than he’s ever felt before, both mentally and physically. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Ridley is happy to be back home where his dream of making it to the NFL first started, and with a clean slate. He’s happy to go back to playing the sport he loves.

“Football saved my life. It’s still my purpose. I still love it, maybe now more than ever.”

Ridley went on to claim that if healthy, he’ll deliver 1,400 yards a season for Jacksonville fans. “Period.”

Although accumulating that many yards after sitting out of football for over a year and half, all while having to learn a brand new playbook in an entirely new offensive scheme would be a mighty tall task, Ridley recognized that he has “a debt to pay back to the game.”

When people talk about the name Calvin Ridley in a decade or two from now, Ridley is determined to do everything he can to ensure that “it rings out for the right reasons.”

Back in March 2021, the San Francisco 49ers traded up from the twelfth pick in the NFL draft all the way up to pick number three. After witnessing such a blockbuster trade, it was no secret what position the 49ers were targeting at this spot. They wanted their franchise quarterback.

The entire fanbase was kept on their toes for the rest of the weeks leading up to the NFL draft. The first two picks in that year’s draft were as much as a sure thing as you can get. However, no one knew who the 49ers were going to select at number three.

Mock drafts galore came out and predicted they would go with Alabama’s Mac Jones, who was arguably the safest choice out of the three quarterbacks who were likely to remain on the board at three overall. However, there were many fans who felt that the 49ers should go a different route in pursuing dual-threat Justin Fields as their quarterback of the future.

Then, of course, there were those who believed that NDSU’s dual-threat quarterback Trey Lance was clearly the best option available. In the end, the San Francisco 49ers wound up selecting Lance with the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, a prospect who many considered to be the most raw quarterback in the draft class having only played one full season in college, but one that arguably offered even higher upside than the number one overall selection in that year’s draft class, Trevor Lawrence.

Fast forward to the 2021 regular season. Jimmy Garoppolo is named starting quarterback, as the 49ers stated that they wanted to develop Lance and get him acclimated to the NFL in the right way.

Lance is asked to come in for a couple of plays here and there throughout the first few games of the season and even gets the opportunity to start a couple of games against teams like the Arizona Cardinals in week 5 and the Houston Texans in week 17, the latter being his first career win as a niner.

It was much later revealed that Lance had been “severely limited” all season long by a hairline fracture on his right index finger which he suffered during the preseason that “did not heal properly.” Kyle Shanahan, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers spoke about how Lance went “a whole year throwing without a bent finger, which changed everything and shows the toughness of the kid that he never complained about it. He tried to adjust so he could be out there.”

The injury forced Lance to completely adjust his grip on the football, as well as his throwing motion. With Lance already being considered a project coming into the draft, this was a massive hurdle he had to quickly overcome. In the end, Lance continued to battle through, even after having sustained a small knee injury in week 5 against Arizona.

The 49ers went on to make it to the NFC championship game that year, led by their starting quarterback Garoppolo. They wound up losing in heartbreaking fashion, as Garoppolo and the offense were unable to get anything done in the final minutes of the game.

Fast forward once more to the 2022 regular season. Shanahan publicly announced that this is “Trey Lance’s team.” The first game of the regular season is against the Chicago Bears, an ugly game in which both teams were forced to play, despite the torrential downpour. The rain only appeared to get worse and worse as the game went on, as the television screen even became blurry at a certain point due to the horrific weather conditions.

The 49ers ended up losing that game but looked to bounce back that next week against their divisional rival, the Seattle Seahawks.

Unfortunately, Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury on a designed run early in the game, as now backup quarterback Garoppolo was forced to take the reins. The 49ers took a while getting into their groove but ultimately played well with Garoppoloat the helm. In fact, after a sluggish 3-4 start, they started catching fire and won four straight games with Garoppololeading the way.

However, in week 13 against the Miami Dolphins, Garoppolo suffered a broken foot that would require season-ending surgery.

The 49ers, an NFL team with Super Bowl aspirations, were now in a heap of trouble. Their season was in mere shambles. The only quarterback healthy on the roster was a rookie whom they had selected with the very last pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Mr. Irrelevant himself, Brock Purdy.

The 49ers ended up winning that game, as Shanahan, who is also the 49ers offensive play-caller, completely flipped the game script in order to implement more rookie quarterback-friendly plays into the game, as they managed to come away with a 33-17 victory. After the game concluded, however, is when the real mayhem in San Fran had begun.

The 49er faithful were completely torn on what to do regarding their latest quarterback fiasco. People were calling for quarterback Baker Mayfield to play for San Francisco, while some remained hopeful that perhaps there was a small chance Lance could make an early return, however, it was quickly made clear that his recovery timeline hadn’t changed. The 49ers ultimately decided to roll with Purdy for that next game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a game in which Purdy dismantled the Buccaneers’ defense, making himself look like a seasoned veteran with a total of three touchdowns on the day, including an impressive rushing score.

The 49ers organization was feeling much better about their quarterback situation after this game, as Purdy ended up taking this squad on a hot winning streak, finishing the season off with an inspiring 13-4 record.

Although there were several awkward moments with Purdy at quarterback, the 49er’s offense was able to pick up right where they left off with Garoppolo and then some.

They went on to beat the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, Purdy remaining undefeated as the 49ers starting quarterback. Then, came the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a hotly anticipated matchup between two teams featuring ferocious defensive lines and high flying offenses.

The Eagles were the first to get on the board, scoring the first touchdown of the game, as they forced the 49ers to match. Just as the offense was looking to get things started, however, Purdy’s arm got hit hard by an Eagles defensive lineman, ultimately shattering the UCL in his right elbow. The 49ers ended up losing that game in a truly devastating fashion, as triple backup quarterback Josh Johnson ended up being ruled out for the game as well after an injury he sustained a little later on.

Now fast forward for the very last time to the 2023 offseason. When the 49ers selected Purdy with the two-hundred sixty-second pick in the NFL draft, no one expected the 49ers to actually consider him as their franchise quarterback for the start of the very next season. Yet, here we are.

In a recent interview with general manager John Lynch, Mr. Irrelevant has been named ‘leader in the clubhouse’ for the San Francisco 49ers. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the starting job will remain his by the start of week one.

As a result of his devastating injury, Lance underwent two successful surgeries in order to repair his fibula fracture and ligament disruption. In April of this year, Lance was seen working out with two-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and quarterback coach Jeff Christensen. He is now one hundred percent healthy again, as Shanahan has stated that “I think Trey is the best that we’ve (seen) him right now” after reportedly making a drastic adjustment to his throwing motion, which he corrected during the offseason.

Regarding Purdy, he is currently in the process of recovering from his injury and remains on track to be ready for the start of the regular season after having successful surgery on his elbow in March.

In a recent interview, Shanahan refused to rule out Lance as the starting quarterback of this team. “We did expect Trey Lance (to be our franchise quarterback for a long time) and I think that he still can be. You also don’t expect the last pick in the draft to come in and play at that level.”

Throughout the offseason, there have been numerous reports about the 49ers fielding calls to trade their potential quarterback of the future, Lance. Since he first got drafted with the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, there has been a mountain of pressure on this young man’s shoulders. When the 49ers traded up to get Lance, it sure cost them a pretty penny, and fans are always going to remember what they had to sacrifice in order to get him. The 49ers ended up parting ways with that year’s twelfth overall pick, two future first-round picks in the 2022 and 2023 NFL drafts, as well as a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft, giving all that draft capital to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for the third overall pick.

The 49ers have an intriguing decision to make at the beginning of the 2023 regular season. They chose to part ways with Garoppolo after the injury he sustained against Miami, due to his inability to take the 49ers to the Super Bowl and win. They also signed former third overall draft pick Sam Darnold for more depth at the quarterback position in order to ensure that their season doesn’t fall by the wayside if one or two of their quarterbacks end up sustaining yet another brutal injury.

While there have been several reports claiming that Darnold has an opportunity to start week one, it seems highly unlikely this will be the case. Even if Purdy isn’t ready to go by week one, it remains highly doubtful that the 49ers won’t give the keys to Lance.

The real question becomes what the 49ers do, assuming Purdy is healthy. We already heard from Shanahan how Lance is looking better and feeling healthier than they’ve ever seen, but no one knows exactly how Purdy will look following his recovery from the tear in his right elbow.

The thing the 49ers have to consider is that even if Purdy looks exactly the same, is that enough for him not to lose his starting job? The fact of the matter is that the 49ers are an extremely talented roster, absolutely loaded on both sides of the football. They are in “win now” mode, and no one knows exactly how long their Super Bowl window will remain open.

Purdy is certainly the safest option they have when healthy. However, the 49ers traded their future away in order to secure a quarterback with a massive amount of potential to dominate in this league. While many fans will argue that Purdy has already proven what he can do on the field, the bottom line is that he hasn’t proven that he can carry this team farther than Garoppolo has. He hasn’t yet proven he can be elite.

Standing tall at 6’4”, Lance undoubtedly has more upside than any quarterback on the 49ers roster. Playing in college for a full four seasons, Purdy undoubtedly has more game-time experience than Lance, who has only played one full college season due to Covid-19.

It should not be forgotten what rookie Purdy was able to do last season with an uber-talented 49ers squad. However, the truth is, Lance has not been offered the opportunity he deserves to shine in this league. In his first season as a rookie, he was forced to sit back and watch as Garoppolo took the reins. In his second year, Lance got injured on a designed run that had him sprinting straight up the middle of the field, which is not a play call that many fans, including 49ers legend Jerry Rice, agreed with.

Despite the rough start to his NFL career, however, Lance remains optimistic, commenting in a recent interview, “how blessed I am to be in this position. I mean, I say it every single day. I play in the NFL. Hopefully, obviously, the plan is for me to get on the field this year and really get this thing started.”

I can certainly respect all that Purdy did for San Francisco last season, but I do believe Lance has the ability to dethrone Purdyas the starter of this team, as he appears hungry for the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong.

Whether or not Lance impresses enough in practice to take over as ‘leader of the clubhouse’ remains to be seen, but I just don’t know how the 49ers could possibly be willing to give up on a quarterback they’ve traded the farm to acquire, without so much as giving him the opportunity he so rightfully deserves as a starting quarterback in this league. He hasn’t yet been able to showcase the tremendous abilities in which he flashed in college, and until he does, the world will never know what Lance is truly capable of.