49ers WR Deebo Samuel To Miss Time

Samuel will miss time due to a hamstring injury, Kyle Shanahan said Monday (via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner). Samuel joins De’Zhaun Stribling, Christian Kirk, Demarcus Robinson and Ricky Pearsall as injured 49ers WRs presently. Mike Evans is also playing (quite well, as Sunday’s outing showed) through a rib injury.

Favoring his right leg earlier in the Seahawks matchup, Samuel left midway through the third quarter with the hamstring ailment. He will miss at least two games, with Wagoner indicating more missed time was likely. This loose timetable opens the door to an IR placement.

The 49ers already have Kirk, Pearsall, Robinson and Stribling on IR. But San Francisco’s IR-return math does not include Pearsall — out for the season — and technically does not involve Kirk, who already counts toward the team’s eight in-season activations due to being designated for return August 30. Robinson and Stribling are expected to return later this season.

Both players would count toward San Francisco’s activation total, which sits at six. Samuel and Robinson will be expected back not long after the 49ers’ Week 8 bye, according to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, who adds Stribling remains on track for return by early December. Entering Week 6, however, the 49ers are down to Evans, Brandin Cooks, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins as available receivers on its 53-man roster. Four wideouts (Wesley Grimes, Will Pauling, Xavier Smith, Malik Turner) are on the Niners’ practice squad.

Re-signing with the team on a one-year deal worth $4.1MM (plus incentives, which will be harder to reach now), Samuel has pitched in as a key supporting-caster upon returning. The dual-threat player has 16 receptions for 206 yards and three touchdowns as a receiver; he has returned kicks and taken nine handoffs for an impressive 78 yards. As the 49ers continued to deal with injury issues at the position, Samuel had been a central piece to start his second San Francisco stint.

Cooks, 33, joined the 49ers’ P-squad earlier this season but has played in two games. His first catch as a 49er came in a big spot, as the 13th-year veteran’s sliding grab resulted in a 7-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter Sunday. Now on his seventh NFL team, Cooks looks set for a more prominent role alongside Evans — also a 2014 first-round pick — in the 49ers’ next two games (against the Commanders and Falcons.

In better 49ers injury news, the team could have Nick Bosa and Kyle Juszczyk back against Washington. Shanahan said (via Maiocco) both have a chance to return in Week 6. The 49ers managed five sacks without Bosa against the Seahawks, and 2025 first-rounder Mykel Williams made his season debut. Bosa, whose return from an ACL tear brought missed time in training camp and then a calf injury suffered in practice, has missed three games. He is not on IR, as the 49ers have gone week-to-week with their top pass rusher.