Although John Lynch said the 49ers had a Deebo Samuel extension budgeted, the team’s initial offer appears to be a key reason why the fourth-year wide receiver requested a trade.
Other factors are in play for Samuel, but ProFootballNetwork.com’s Tony Pauline reports the 49ers opened talks with an offer worth less than $19MM per year. Believed to be targeting a deal in the $25MM AAV range, Samuel soon removed all things 49ers from his social media accounts. Then, his trade request became public.
Following the market-shifting Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill deals, 11 wide receivers earn more than $19MM annually now. Brandin Cooks just signed an extension worth more than $19MM per year. Given Samuel’s age and importance to a San Francisco offense that is likely to feature a new starting quarterback soon, it is understandable his camp has set a much higher baseline.
The 49ers are expected to exhaust every non-trade solution here, but Samuel’s desire to play closer to home is now surfacing as well. The South Carolina native and ex-Gamecock no longer wants to play in California, according to NBC Sports’ Chris Simms and ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (video link). This certainly could also be a negotiating tactic from Samuel’s side, though the longstanding draft system that disperses prospects throughout the country certainly causes major adjustments for young players. Of course, this setup is not going away anytime soon.
Samuel, A.J. Brown and Terry McLaurin are staying away from their respective teams’ offseason programs, as they strive for new contracts and/or trades. Some around the league do not expect Samuel’s next deal to match Brown’s, Pauline adds, though of this talented 2019 receiver class, only Samuel has earned an All-Pro nod. That came partially due to Samuel’s rushing production from his wideout position last season. That atypical workload has emerged as a reason for Samuel’s trade request, creating one of the more interesting situations in recent receiver history.
Are we going to sum up the 2019 NFL draft as the “I want to be traded draft”? From what I’ve heard this is about Jimmy Garappolo because they don’t have cap room. They only have two players currently on their roster that have any paragraph 5 money that they can lower to get cap room for. That one player is Jimmy Garappolo he’s got $24M of paragraph 5. When teams go to redo your contract to lower your cap number, what they do is they find a guy who has a high base salary. They guarantee it they call it “signing bonus” that lowers him down to the minimum salary they can pay and all of a sudden they pick up all that room in cap. McGinchey, the right tackle he’s due to get $10M in paragraph 5 its all guaranteed but he doesn’t have another year to prorate the money out so they can’t really do anything with him. So everything with Deebo is tied to whether they can get rid of JimmyG and from what I heard Kyle is calling right now saying to teams “Don’t you need a quarterback?” but he has durability issues you can’t deny it. And his shoulder surgery has impacted his trade value. They have to get rid of him and every team knows it.
You failed to mention that Lance is still no sure thing and keeping Garappolo as an insurance policy is always an option.
As for Samuel’s overuse comment, someone clearly made him aware of the NFL’s injury factor. Only 9% of starting running backs and only 8% of starting wide receivers played in every game last year, thus the chances are high that Samuel will soon sustain some sort of injury.
And that line of reasoning is exactly why he wants to get paid now, so when he inevitably gets run into the ground at least he’s getting top dollar to do it. Also as it was stated above, he’s the All-Pro guy from this class, not brown or scary Terry, also he is multidimensional which the others are not. He deserves to get paid, im not sure about 25 mil per but 19 mil seems low to me as well based on the readjusted market
Soon? He’s already been injury prone
Garappolo is on the last year of his contract so even if you make the base salary a bonus, you have to still keep it on this year or add void years and that would be dumb to do at this point. Somebody is gonna take Garappolo by the summer time. Deebo is just being a diva and cant be patient. He is like that girl from Willie Wonka…I want my money and I want it now!!!!
I’ve never seen the NFL Draft described in such an odd way as this: “though the longstanding draft system that disperses prospects throughout the country certainly causes major adjustments for young players”
I wondered that about that too. Isn’t that a basic fact of all major pro sports?
If we go based on the closest teams to Deebo’s home state, the three closest teams have picks in the top ten, so they’re not immediate Super Bowl contenders. Two of them have iffy QB situations – as of now, Marcus Mariota is QB1 in Atlanta and Sam Darnold is QB1 in Carolina. The third is set at QB with Trevor Lawrence, but I’m not sure Jacksonville would be Deebo’s first choice. Of course, he may just go where anyone is willing to commit the money.
After the dumb contract they gave Kirk, Jacksonville probably don’t want two WR making that cash.
“Find someone that wants to pay you 25M and we’ll trade you. Otherwise… let’s have a real conversation.”
That isn’t how it works though, although I agree with you. His agent is paid to leverage his situation and they’re doing just that. 9ers need to figure out Jimmy g or else things may fall apart based on Jimmy’s cap number alone. Always aim higher and drop down to a number you still want
Sometimes it is, teams will give a player the opportunity to discuss with other teams
This trend of athletes removing all things related to their team on social media is incredibly juvenile.
Deebo…….did you ever hear of violating your contract that you signed and is valid AND still in effect……sit out the year…..and then have the Niners franchise you…….welcome to the real business world…….your agent isn’t looking for an enhancement to his reputation is he……or a bigger commission…….how about the bad press and the insults to your character and reputation…
It goes both ways, teams cut guys and don’t pay what the contract says and players want raises in their contract. U don’t say that every time a team cuts a player or renegotiates their contract to a lesser number
I think I see what you’re saying but teams can cut players because the contract the player signed allows it. And nobody HAS to accept a renegotiated lower deal, but some do because they didn’t perform up to the deal they had.
Surprised Brown would earn more than Deebo given Brown’s recent struggles to stay on the field and given Tennessee’s offense
This is just another example of Steve Keim in Arizona paying Hopkins the big dollars way over the bar. Desperation and he has ruined it for the league
Find another WR or TE who is disgruntled w/ their team that is as good or close to Deebos Talent Level then trade one for one. End of story or greatly increase his offer. We heard this same crap w/ PK Gould !! This business is becoming a Circus !!
if it doesn’t happen by draft day, it probably won’t happen at all. So, we shall know if he is traded very soon.
One good year and he thinks he deserves more money then most receivers that’s been doing it a lot more consistently come on man you haven’t even played a full season either bro! I love Deebo don’t get me wrong but the 49ers offense and using him as a RB are the only reason why he has what little leverage he does have. This is gonna ruin the NFL if teams keep giving in to one year divas! Don’t want to be a 49er, see ya! Go play for the jets and get your 700 yds a year for 25 million with 4 win seasons. Greed.
19 million is more than fair for his one thousand yard season. Quit being greedy and prove some consistency like the other 11 receivers have, that do get more then 19 million!