Justin Jefferson catches strays as 3x Super Bowl champ goes on scathing rant about Deebo Samuel
Deebo Samuel had raised eyebrows when he took to X (formerly Twitter) to say that it wasn't that he was suffering a slump in production because he was in decline or struggling. He said that the reason for it was that he wasn't being given the ball as much as he would have liked.
In the latest episode of "Breakfast Ball," Mark Schelreth called the San Francisco 49ers star receiver for his now-deleted tweet. During the process, he even took a slight jab at the league's highest-paid wide receiver, Minnesota Vikings' Justin Jefferson.
"Here's what drives me crazy with Deebo, because you became a star. Are you not happy with your role? Because your role is what made you a star. Your versatility made you a star... You didn't become a star by playing X. You're not Justin Jefferson. You became a star because of your versatility and all the things you can do," Schlereth said on the show.
According to Schlereth, while Jefferson was great at playing receiver, he did not have other skills that would make him a versatile player. Samuel, on the other hand, has multiple skills, which is one reason why the team gave him the ball less frequently.
Calling him a "full back playing wide receiver," Schlereth slammed Samuel for demanding a strict wideout role despite his versatility, making him the star player that he is now. Schlereth couldn't make sense of precisely what the Niners star was upset about.
Samuel defends his comments on X
On Tuesday, when the wideout was asked whether he would like to recant or clarify the statement he made on social media, Samuel said that he stood by what he said.
"You read what you read," Samuel said. "A little frustrated for sure."
While the team made it to the Super Bowl last year, they are sitting on a 6-7 losing record so far in the season, primarily due to several injuries to key players.
However, coach Kyle Shanahan took it on a positive note and said that if that's what Samuel would like to bring his A-game to the gridiron, he was willing to tweak his schemes to get the ball more frequently to Samuel.
The Niners will take on the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday. Will Samuel finally get what he wants out of his team?