Kurtenbach: Deebo Samuel demanded to be fed the ball. Then he choked away the 49ers’ season

Star 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel spent the short lead-up to Thursday night’s must-win game against the Rams demanding to be fed the ball.

Then he choked.

And now the 49ers season, which was hanging on by a thread before the ugly 12-6 loss to the Rams, is over.

Samuel had five touches for 19 yards on Thursday, all coming in the first half. Four of those touches came in the first quarter. His Monday social media post, in which he claimed he was “Not struggling at all, just not getting the ball!!!!!!!” worked as intended.

Well, he got the ball Thursday.

The problem? He was, in fact, struggling.

So when the Niners drew up a slant play to Samuel on a third down in Rams territory — a play where both fellow wide receivers Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall’s only roles were to block for Samuel, first to get him open, then to keep him open — and the 10 other players on the field ran it all to perfection, effectively gifting Samuel a touchdown, the first for the Niners in a contest where they wouldn’t reach the end zone, what did he do?

I can tell you that the play didn’t end in a touchdown.

“I don’t really see Deebo drop passes like that,” tight end George Kittle said. “I think he’s one of the best in the world when it comes to being open across the middle of the field and taking a ball to the house.”

He was, George — past tense.

“I feel if I make that play, we win the game,” Samuel, who to his credit talked to the media after this loss, said.

Samuel complaining about not getting the ball on Twitter, only to be appeased and do nothing with the opportunity, seems all too fitting for this lost season.

Instead of running an offense that would work against the press man-to-man the Rams showed the Niners Thursday (the same press nearly every team has shown the Niners this season, including the Rams in Week 3), Kyle Shanahan instead scripted play after play to placate Samuel, the player whose inability to beat man coverage is why the Niners find themselves facing it so often these days.

Yes, Shanahan spent another week trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

The 49ers’ record and offensive mediocrity stands as a testament to it.

Contrary to his online assertions, Samuel touched the ball roughly as often as in prior seasons.

It probably didn’t feel the same to him because he wasn’t doing anything with those touches.

His yards per rush have been cut in half year-over-year, as Samuel’s zapped lateral quickness leaves him unable to make the first defender miss enough to bounce off him — his trademark during his best seasons.

His receiving has been equally ineffective, as defenses are selling out to stop him, knowing that Shanahan — like a screen-addicted toddler at a restaurant — can’t function without his favorite gadget.

Any other coach would have benched Samuel by now. But instead of trying someone else — anyone else — to play as the team’s Z receiver, Shanahan has stuck with an ineffective Samuel for 14 games, spending untold hours scheming up ways to get him open; trying to find a play that can turn back time.

In the era of pragmatists in the NFL — Shanahan’s protégé Sean McVay, his counterpart Thursday, is an excellent example of one — Shanahan’s idealism is a burden the Niners must carry every week. Samuel is its totem.

Worse yet, Samuel knows his pull with Shanahan. Yes, it was, at one point, totally deserved. But things change. At least, they should.

Instead, Samuel — certainly knowing, deep down, that he is not the same player he once was (or at least that it’s not his year) — used that sway to demand more touches.

Shanahan placated him in all-too-obvious fashion — throwing away the first quarter of the contest, in effect — and the 49ers lost the game.

This past offseason, the Niners tried to trade Samuel for an early draft pick. They almost did it, too.

I was under the impression that Samuel would be a Baltimore Raven this season. Done deal.

Then, suddenly, the deal was off. I’m yet to get a straight answer as to what happened. Did Baltimore balk at the cost? Did the Niners demand a sweetener? Did Samuel demand a new contract that Baltimore wasn’t willing to provide (they’re a well-run organization, after all)?

It could have been any of the above.

But my best guess is that Shanahan called off the deal.

This is a toxic relationship, and instead of being honest about it, both Shanahan and Samuel seem intent on ensuring that it poisons everything around them.

That said, I’m not sure what’s left to kill with the 2024 Niners.

The once-great wide receiver will likely be waived come the offseason to help the Niners’ books. There’s an outside shot he sticks with the team and is given another year to prove that 2024 was a fluke — a mere bump in the road — but every disappointing performance makes that less and less likely.

Samuel is only 28, but it’s been a hard 28. The NFL doesn’t just stand for National Football League—it’s also “not for long.” Samuel’s physicality was the core tenet of his game — he was a wide receiver who played like a running back.

Well, there’s a well-known axiom in the league: running backs’ production falls off a cliff after age 28. And while there are exceptions to every rule, Samuel — the wideback — doesn’t appear to be one.

(Christian McCaffrey, 28, doesn’t appear to be one, either.)

Perhaps Samuel can do something big and memorable in the Niners’ final three meaningless (at least as it pertains to the standings) games. Of course, that would be too little, too late. But amid these final days of Samuel in a 49ers uniform, Thursday’s game being the final memory would be tragic.

Or maybe that’s the right way to go out for Samuel — a one-of-a-kind player.

After all, when you play the game like a demolition derby, you can’t be surprised when all that’s left is wreckage.