Deebo Samuel Wants Out?

Deebo Samuel of the San Francisco 49ers has let the press know via Adam Schefter that he wants out of the bay. After this upcoming season, Deebo Samuel will be listed as an unrestricted free agent on the sheets unless the 49ers decide to give him an extension. For the numbers he put up last year it sounds like an easy decision to make, just give him an extension and move into next season’s business as usual. Well, Deebo has decided that he deserves to be the highest-paid receiver in the league. That makes the decision a little bit harder to make for head coach Kyle Shannahan and GM John Lynch. While I’m not in any way discrediting Samuel’s numbers, he did put up strong numbers last year, I’m just not entirely sure that he deserves to be the highest-paid receiver in the league. 

Last season Deebo was 6th in receiving yards, 2nd in yards after the catch, and 5th in the contested catch. He wasn’t first in any category last season, so that’s why I don’t think he should be the highest-paid receiver in the league just yet. Wide receivers such as DeAndre Hopkins and Davante Adams or Cooper Kupp would in my opinion be considered the top-tier receivers in the league. If I were a head coach in the NFL those are three guys that I would pay money to before Deebo Samuel, and there are arguably more options. 

Back to the trade rumor side of this deal, Deebo hasn’t yet made it clear where he would prefer to be other than San Francisco, but there are a few spots people are starting to think of. One of the main locations people are bringing up is Green Bay. Normally I wouldn’t agree with this take just because they have always had a clear WR1 whether that be Davante Adams or Jordy Nelson, but with neither of them being in Green Bay this season it might be a landing spot for Deebo. This trade could work great for both teams if it weren’t for one factor, the cap space. The Packers are one of the bottom 5 teams in cap space at the moment which means they don’t have much money left to give out. Since Deebo expects to be the highest-paid receiver in the league, Green Bay wouldn’t work out so well given their financial setbacks. The Packers would probably have to trade a couple of guys with bigger contracts to get Deebo, and still have enough cap space to play. The other big-name people were throwing around, the Chiefs. The Chiefs just lost their WR1, Tyreek Hill, in a trade this off-season. Deebo Samuel would kind of fit the role that they lost in Hill. He’s fast, elusive, and a yard after catch monster. They could use him in all of the deep balls or jet sweeps that they used Hill in and honestly I think Deebo would be a good fit with the Chiefs. However, the Chiefs drafted a young rookie wide receiver in the draft with a similar skillset to Deebo who would probably be cheaper to just develop as a player. Overall there’s no telling where Deebo will land, but I feel that we can be sure he wants out of The Bay.