ESPN: San Francisco 49ers may soon be cutting one of their greatest players.
Despite having one of the league’s deepest wide receiver corps, the San Francisco 49ers may soon be cutting one of their greatest players.
Given that they had to deal with a contract dispute involving Brandon Aiyuk and multiple reports regarding WR Deebo Samuel’s departure during the 2024 offseason, San Francisco is no stranger to trade rumors regarding their wide receivers.
Seasonal changes haven’t put an end to the rumors, as ESPN reporter Dan Graziano recently stated that Samuel might be traded in 2025.
On November 15, Graziano stated, “Samuel serves as an illustration of the challenging choices San Francisco will have to make in the spring.” “The franchise extended Jauan Jennings earlier in the summer, selected Ricky Pearsall in the first round, and signed Brandon Aiyuk to a high-profile contract extension before to this season. As a result, the Niners have invested a lot of money in their wide receiver prospects. Samuel might be the odd man out as they begin to move past their Super Bowl-caliber core and into the future, according to that.
Although Samuel’s departure would be significant, it would be indicative of the ultimate sacrifices the 49ers would need to make. The Niners will ultimately need to start transitioning into a new generation since it is neither cheap nor easy to build a highly competitive club.
Samuel’s value can be somewhat recovered by San Francisco.
Samuel will be a free agent in 2026, which is one of the reasons he appears to be a potential trade target. According to Spotrac, Deebo is currently signed by the 49ers to a three-year, $71 million contract that includes a $28.3 million cap hit in 2025.
That’s a big figure that the 49ers can’t completely ignore. They could reduce the $16.6 million salary with a trade, but they would still be responsible for at least $12 million in dead cap.
That is still preferable to Samuel expiring his contract and the team receiving nothing in exchange. However, it won’t be simple to trade the 28-year-old receiver for a fair price either, as teams might be put off by Samuel’s high contract.
Samuel is a unique player who will not be acquired cheaply by San Francisco or any other team that chooses to pursue him.
49ers Wide Receiver Discusses Sideline Conflict
Samuel was seen fighting with long snapper Taybor Peppers during the 49ers’ Week 11 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Samuel lost his cool after San Francisco kicker Jake Moody missed his third field goal of the game, which resulted in a heated argument with Peppers.
Both head coach Kyle Shanahan and Samuel played down the incident after the game.
Samuel remarked, “Normally, I don’t even get like that, but I just get frustrated in the heat of battle.” You know, it was a really close game, and I kind of lost my character. But we’ll move past that after I speak with Moody.I wasn’t saying anything weird to him at first. At the moment, I was simply a little frustrated. But he didn’t care because he went out there and won the game. Thus, we will put it behind us.
