Curtis Samuel Won't Describe ‘the Plan' for Him But Sounds Confident in It

Samuel won't describe practice 'plan' for him but believes in it originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

One of Curtis Samuel's proudest moments as a football player occurred in 2018, when the then-Panther caught a screen pass against the Giants in Week 5 and rumbled through multiple tacklers for a 25-yard touchdown.

That sequence sticks with him still not just because it was his first professional end zone trip but also because it came in his first game since Week 10 in the previous season, as two health issues sidelined him for a prolonged period.

Samuel will hopefully have the opportunity soon to produce a similar strike for the Washington Commanders.

While the wide receiver's offseason and training camp hasn't been totally smooth — that'll be addressed in a bit — he is at least practicing on a semi-regular basis, which is a pleasant switch-up from last year when he was plagued by a groin injury that essentially turned him into a non-factor for all of 2021.

With Week 1 now a month away and that date with the Jaguars representing a chance for Samuel to finally compete in meaningful action once more, he's got a primary focus that he's fixated on.

"My main goal," Samuel told NBC Sports Washington's JP Finlay on Wednesday, "is to just be who I was. Don't let what happened to you change what you are."

When Samuel evaluates himself, he sees a threat who can "bring an extra component to the offense," one with speed who can "do different things with the ball." During the club's July and August camp, he's produced a couple of moves to back up that scouting report.

Unfortunately, worries over Samuel's conditioning as well as him speaking up about pain in his hamstrings and lower back have prompted Ron Rivera and the training staff to closely monitor Samuel's activity recently.

The coach has explained to the media that the decision to limit Samuel — thus far, he hasn't logged three consecutive full-go practices — has "nothing to do with" the 26-year-old's groin problems. Regardless, the fact of the matter is that the organization still feels the need to consistently scale back Samuel's participation despite his initial flare-up happening roughly 15 months ago.

And, just to make the whole situation a little more mysterious, Rivera has simply labeled Samuel's comeback program as "the plan."

Naturally, that came up in Samuel's Wednesday interview.

"I don't really want to say too much information about it, but I can say I feel good," Samuel said when first asked about it. "Each and every day, whatever the plan is, I'm out there, I'm always doing something, I'm keeping myself active."

"The goal of the plan is just for me to feel good, whether it's preseason, regular season, we take it day by day," he responded during another back and forth.

"I'm healthy," he said in one more discussion about it. "Just understand the plan. We aren't going to go into detail about that but just understand that I'm feeling good."

Samuel did relent that, in an effort to ultimately be way more available for the Commanders, he has altered his diet — grass-fed beef is on the incline, as are any green vegetable and carrots — and enlisted new folks to assist in his recovery when he's not at the facility.

Overall, he's experimenting with a "different approach" compared to 2021 and seems relatively confident that'll pay off.

Ideally, the current version of Samuel's preparation will bring out the past version of him that attracted Washington in the first place.

"I can do everything that I used to do," he insisted.

The time for Samuel to deliver on that assertion, and for "the plan" to prove worthwhile, is almost here.