The script has remained the same for Curtis Samuel at every level.
At Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, Samuel suffered an ankle injury his sophomore season that cost him most of the year. His junior year, the wiry speedster rushed for over 1,000 yards and scored 13 touchdowns from the running back position on limited touches – the next season, Samuel exploded for 1,461 yards with 17 touchdowns.
At Ohio State, he exploded in his junior year for 15 touchdowns after only scoring nine times total in his first two seasons.
It seems like something is special about that third season – and Samuel agrees.
“I feel like my life is going the same way all the time,” Samuel said. “Like, in high school – first year I got hurt, second year I played a little bit, third year I took off. College – first year I got hurt, second year I got to play a little bit, third year I took off.”
So is three your lucky number?
“You’ll see,” Samuel grinned.
After a sophomore season with almost 800 all-purpose yards and seven scores, an improvement in Year Three will push him into the upper echelons of wide receivers.
Samuel’s got more than just history on his side – after missing chunks of each offseason, Samuel is fully healthy for the first time in his career – and he aims to keep it that way.
“The main thing with me is just staying healthy. As long as I stay out there, I’m going to be a producer,” said Samuel. “It’s super exciting to walk [in] here and be healthy and be excited to finally start off camp the right way and just keep it going. I’m just super excited about the journey and the road we’re about to go on.”
That road will continue to wind towards being an NFL wide receiver after Samuel spent most of his time in high school and college at the running back position, being asked to contribute from multiple places on the field, but not really diving into the nuances of what it takes to run routes correctly and use that speed and body control to fulfill his potential.
Even without that nuance, Samuel managed to score seven touchdowns on only 47 touches last season, including five in his first 21. No matter who you ask about Samuel this offseason, one word keeps coming up – Dynamic.
“Whenever I got the ball in my hands, I made things happen for the team and scored touchdowns – that’s what I do,” said Samuel.
Ron Rivera is ecstatic to see what Samuel can continue to do with the ball in his hands in a complete season – Samuel has missed ten games combined, from a leg injury his rookie season to a heart condition that kept him off the field to start the season and limited his reps once he returned.
Samuel played only 44% of the offensive snaps in 2018, but saw the field for more than 80% five of the final six games, only taking a breather in Week 17 when the team’s playoff chances had already passed. The wideout who will turn 23 in a few weeks is getting used to the motions of a wide receiver without just going through the motions – he says he felt like his movements were robotic on the field at times in his first two seasons, but he’s starting to make those movements feel natural and make them his own.
“The more I do something over and over – it’s just repetition,” said Samuel. “My body gets used to it and it just comes naturally and I can start adding my own flavor.”
He was working on making his movements come naturally in Miami this offseason – and working on something else that may surprise people after Samuel ran a 4.31 40-yard dash and bounced off tacklers like a pinball last season.
“This is going to sound funny, but [I was working on my] speed,” said Samuel. “I was trying to get a little bit faster; just balance, being able to….come out of my routes square and be able to locate the ball. And speed – ain’t never too much.”
“I feel like a bunch of people have been telling me I got bigger, but I don’t know – I feel like I got faster. That’s kind of scary, right?”
Terrifying.
