The 49ers-Deebo Samuel road has been a rocky one for a while now. After a hold-in led to a brand new deal in 2022, it didn’t take long for trade talks to flow into involving one (and eventually each) of the team’s top wide receivers. The veteran weapon was not moved, partly attributable to the 49ers’ lack of satisfaction with the offers that were coming in for him, and this offseason doesn’t appear likely to herald larger offers.
During an appearance on The John Keim Report, ESPN’s Nick Wagoner gave his opinion on Samuel’s trade value in 2025. He reminded us that, last 12 months, it was teammate Brandon Aiyuk who was getting the Round 1 and a pair of offers that San Francisco hoped to get for Samuel. Samuel, however, was receiving interest from teams with late-Day 2 offers or worse. This offseason, Wagoner predicts that the offers will all be picks from Day 3 of the draft.
A part of that’s attributable to performance and health issues from Samuel since his extension was signed. One other a part of it’s the publicity of the situation. As Wagoner states, the 49ers are dead set on moving on from Samuel, and Samuel is dead set on moving on from the 49ers, and the entire of the NFL world knows this. This total transparency doesn’t give either side much bargaining power over a brand new team fascinated about acquiring Samuel’s talents.
Michael David Smith of NBC Sports goes so far as to say that, though many teams seem like fascinated about Samuel, their pursuit may not come via trade offers. Smith indicates that teams could proceed to lowball the 49ers with their trade offers knowing that the 49ers could cut Samuel in the event that they can’t work out a trade. At that time, Samuel’s free agency would turn into fair game for everybody.
This decision by San Francisco would likely must occur by March 22. That day, a month from now, is the date on which the team would owe Samuel a $15.4MM option bonus if he’s still on the roster. If the 49ers can’t work out a trade by then, it seems extremely likely that they might cut Samuel, knowing that each side are dead set on moving on from one another. Opposing teams looking for to amass the 29-year-old would then just must wait the 49ers out in an effort to avoid spending draft capital in securing Samuel’s services.
