Getty San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel diving towards the end-zone during an NFL game.
The majority of teams in the NFL got their offseason training activities underway this week.
Although not everyone participated as Adam Schefter of ESPN noted: several notable wide receivers were absent including San Francisco 49ers star Deebo Samuel.
Second-round picks that include WRs Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown and Terry McLaurin are not expected to participate in their teams’ on-field off-season programs because they want new contracts at a time this off-season when WR deals have exploded, per league sources.
Samuel revealed on social media that he has been receiving racist comments and death threats regarding his request for a contract extension:
#49ers Deebo Samuel says fans are sending him death threats and racist comments over contract negotiations
Now a new twist and turn in the Samuel saga revealed itself late on Tuesday, April 20.
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Very Interesting
Deebo Samuel’s brother, Tyquan, commented on a 49ers Facebook fan page saying, “don’t worry we asking for a trade.”
#49ers Deebo Samuel’s brother commented on one of my Facebook posts that Deebo is requesting a trade 👀
A few moments later Tyquan doubled down on that take by commenting on that post, “he won’t be a 49er, that’s all that matters.”
Deebo’s brother doubles-down on @TheSFNiners_ facebook page and says “he won’t be a 49er, that’s all that matters.”
After social media started going wild, Tyquan attempted to clarify things by saying on his personal account, “y’all take s*** and run with it [I don’t] know nothing about what my brother doing.”
There are screenshots floating around of Deebo Samuel’s brother commenting they’ll request a trade.
His brother confirms he was joking around and actually has no idea what’s going on.
Deebo’s situation is fluid and anything could still happen, but this was never newsworthy…
Regardless there have been a ton of passive-aggressive steps taken by Samuel and his camp indicating that he is unhappy with how things have been going.
He wiped all mentions of the 49ers on his social media and teased that he wanted at least $25 million per year on a new deal via a social media post from a friend.
Something to Monitor
This is a developing situation in that you have to make sure you’re hovering over the refresh button on Twitter to stay up to date.
Although if you’re a member of the Jets organization, this kind of chaos is exactly what you want to see.
This opens up the door for the 49ers to seriously consider trading off Samuel, which seemed like nothing more than a pipedream a month ago.
Akash Anavarathan of Niners Nation said recently on Twitter that San Francisco has to do “due diligence” leading into the 2022 NFL draft on a potential Samuel trade:
If you’re the 49ers, you have to do your due diligence over the next 9 days to see what trade offers you can get for Deebo Samuel and what you can do with those picks in the draft.
I’m not saying I’d trade him, but it would be dumb to not do all the diligence before next Thurs.
An interesting thing to consider is the 49ers don’t pick until No. 61 overall in the second round of April’s draft. In other words, they could use a serious upgrade in the quality of their picks and trading Samuel would be one way to solve that.
Not only would they immediately have a blockbuster haul of picks, but they would also avoid paying a king’s ransom via a massive contract extension. That responsibility would fall on the shoulders of the new team trading for his services.
Of course, nothing is ever that simple. The 49ers were just in the NFC championship game and by trading away Samuel you are getting weaker on offense in an offseason that you’re trying to improve.
We live in a new day and age in the NFL where the players have the power. Although if Samuel really wants to ensure he is moved, the only card left to play is going scorched earth.
If he goes to the 49ers and demands a trade and says if you don’t trade me I will throw a fit and cause a ruckus, then San Francisco’s hand might be forced.
Until that happens, the 49ers can simply call his bluff and play hardball.
Either way, this should be a fascinating staredown to watch, in particular over the next week as we approach the NFL draft. If a trade was going to happen you’d have to think that it would come before the draft.
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