ASHBURN, Va. — When the Washington Commanders acquired Deebo Samuel in March, the receiver had an idea of what to expect.
Samuel had played against head coach Dan Quinn’s defenses during his time with the San Francisco 49ers. And Samuel had played two division games a year against now-Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s teams when Kingsbury coached the Arizona Cardinals.
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But playing against a team doesn’t fully replicate the experience of playing for it.
And six years in Kyle Shanahan’s potent offense didn’t familiarize Samuel with what’s expected in Washington.
“Not at all,” Samuel told Yahoo Sports. “It’s a no-huddle [offense here]. It’s just signals. You got to pay attention to the small things and you got to pay attention to [quarterback] Jayden [Daniels] because he’s giving the signals really quick.
With the 49ers, Samuel says, “we always had huddle.”
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The Commanders and 49ers were on opposite ends of the no-huddle spectrum last season. While Washington went no-huddle on a whopping 61.5% of its plays, San Francisco ditched the huddle on just 3.2% plays, according to TruMedia data.
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The Commanders ran 1,101 offensive plays compared to the 49ers’ 1,026.
Put it together: The Commanders lined up without a huddle more than 670 times last season, while the 49ers did so just 33 times.
Samuel’s observation doesn’t reflect just the 49ers’ 27th-ranked no-huddle usage. It also reflects the Commanders’ more than doubling the second-place Chicago Bears’ 25.2% no-huddle usage, and more than quintupling (that’s five times!) the league average 12.0% no-huddle clip.
Since the 2003 start of TruMedia data on no-huddle usage, only two units had ever used no-huddle at a higher rate than the 2024 Commanders: the Chip Kelly Philadelphia Eagles in 2013 (66.7%) and 2015 (72.%).
Commanders wide receiver Deebo Samuel will look to pick up the…
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