Oh, Deebo. You have one healthy year, and you're already demanding trades.
In 2021, Deebo Samuel was one of the most productive offensive players in the league, finishing with 1770 scrimmage yards and 14 total touchdowns. Before week 10, Samuel was almost exclusively used as a wide receiver, but after numerous injuries to San Francisco running backs, he saw his role expand to lining up in the backfield 21% of the snaps down the stretch. This resulted in 365 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground, but it also meant he had almost 200 targets/touches combined and that's a lot hits on the 6' 0" 210lb receiver.
So that's the issue Samuel has, usage. He's going to get paid either way, and San Francisco wants to pay him, but it appears Deebo wants to be used as a traditional receiver rather than take the abuse a utility player endures that generally leads to a much shorter career.
This should be as simple as San Francisco saying, "okay we won't use you as a running back so often, we only did that because our entire running back room was injured". There are some other personnel issues in the Bay Area however, with little traction coming in the way of a Jimmy Garoppolo trade and questions about readiness of Trey Lance.
There is a good chance Deebo has issues with the prospect of playing under Trey Lance, who showed some promise but likely sinks the 49ers out of playoff contention for 2022 at least. It also stands to reason that there are some personality conflicts in the building, with the receiver's criticism of the game plan not going over smoothly for Kyle Shanahan. The Shanahan mentality going back to his dad Mike is all about the team, grinding it out, next man up. Especially if San Francisco is going to pay Samuel top dollar, they are going to want to use him for his versatility and not be limited by what Deebo feels like doing on any given play.
If there are unreconcilable differences, the only question is where to send Deebo in order to get max value. The 49ers do not have a first round pick in the draft, but they certainly will if they trade Samuel and with the rich wide receiver draft class the year they could replace him with one of the picks they receive in return.
Best Fit: New York Jets
-2022 1st Round Pick (10th)
-2022 3rd Round Pick
The second option is trading Deebo for some lesser picks and a player, preferably a decent receiver but again, the wide receiver draft class is deep and the 49ers can secure someone like Skyy Moore with a second round pick.
Best Fit: Pittsburgh
-2022 2nd & 3rd
-2023 2nd
-Chase Claypool
The last option is a doozy, but the 49ers could try to package Jimmy Garappolo and Deebo Samuel in a monster trade to a team with a lot of offensive help. There aren't many teams this would even be a possibility for, but the Houston Texans could certainly do it. There's another team that would be more likely to sell the farm for a deal like this however.
Best Fit: Carolina
SF receives:
-2022 1st & 3rd, 2023 1st
-Robby Anderson
CAR receives:
-Garappolo & Samuel
The 49ers are reluctant to trade Deebo, and understandably too, as Samuel accounted for 28% of their total scrimmage yards last season. If an agreement between the two parties can't be met by next Thursday, there is a very good chance San Francisco is forced to deal their star receiver in order to capitilize on his value and give them the best shot to take advantage of the 2022 draft.
It will be very interesting to see how this athlete vs front office battle will play out.
Keep an eye out for the first episode of Excessive Celebration!, the SportsLeaf podcast, dropping next week!
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