Former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Curtis Samuel signs a three-year $ 34.5 million deal with the Washington Football Team, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
A second round draft pick by the Ohio State Panthers in 2017, Samuel finally lived up to expectations last season under offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who took advantage of the speedster’s ability to play receiver and run back like he did on the university.
Samuel had a career-best 77 catches for 851 yards and 41 rushes for 200 yards when Brady used the 24-year-old (Aug. 11) as he intended to use running back Christian McCaffrey, who missed 13 games with injuries.
Samuel’s most impressive stat of the past season was his catch rate (79.4%) leading all NFL receivers and well above his 56.3% from the previous three seasons. He also became one of the front runners with catches in third place for first downs.
In 53 career games, he has 185 receptions for 2,087 yards and 14 touchdown receptions and 478 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns. While injuries limited him to just 22 games in his first two seasons, he played in 31 of 32 games in the past two seasons.
ESPN’s David Newton contributed to this report.