Despite Moving On, Deebo Samuel Told to Tax 49ers “Butt” After Kyle Shanahan’s Botched Trade Efforts

Though the San Francisco 49ers reached the Super Bowl with the help of Deebo Samuel, the team, at some point, was ready to put him on the sidelines. Rumors are that the Niners wanted to trade their receiver. This came after Samuel signed a three-year $71.55 million extension with the team, having left with two years on his contract.

Samuel heard about the rumors and chose to be nonchalant about it, trying to focus on football and the upcoming season. Addressing the rumors, the WR admitted to The Athletic saying, “Yeah, I heard it,” and added, “Had a conversation with my agent about it. They were going back and forth with it, whoever it was. It was a thing at first. But going to move past it. We’re here, and we’re here to get better.”

Deebo Samuel might not forgive the 49ers

Samuel didn’t have the best of the seasons in 2023, as he recorded 892 yards and 7 touchdowns. After the trade rumors came to light, they became the talk of the town and the hosts of SPEAK have their take on it. LeSean McCoy’s take on the situation seems appropriate now. “If you sit there and like complain about it, be mad about it, it might affect your game and you don’t want that with your teammates, that’s in the past,” said McCoy.

He went on to state, “If he does have a great year, which I think he will, right, you can pay him back in other ways, right, because they might want to re-sign you. That number, whatever that number was going to be where you might be okay with, ‘Now I’m not okay with it. Now I’mma tax your butt, you tried to trade me.”

Trying to trade Deebo Samuel might have been a hasty mistake because he can play running back, and wide receiver, and the All-Pro even has some quarterbacking skills in him. In 2022, his 1,770 yards from scrimmage ranked third in the NFL and he also carried the team to the divisional round against the Packers in the 2021 season, where he had 1,405 yards. 2021 was the best season Samuel had to date.

Kyle Shanahan saved himself when the media asked him about the potential trade of their receivers. “Same intentions the way yesterday was. … We love those guys. We thought they’d be on our team yesterday. Still do. And we still always listen to everybody until the end of …” said Shanahan and took a long pause before saying anything that the media might misconstrue. The GM John Lynch and HC Shanahan admitted that they wanted to trade Aiyuk and Samuel but held on to them.

But despite all of this, the WR is attending the OTAs, unlike his counterpart Brandon Aiyuk, who is seeking a new deal. Speaking of new deals, the 49ers gave Christian McCaffrey a record-setting two-year extension for $38 million, which runs through 2027 and gives him $24 million in guarantees. But as mentioned earlier, Samuel is focused on the upcoming season and doing his best at the OTAs.

The 49ers WR is unfazed by all the chatter

Samuel will earn a base salary of $20.9 million and will get a workout bonus of $200,000 in the 2024 season, while counting against a cap hit of $28.6 million this year, per Spotrac. Of all people, Samuel is aware of what he signed up for and knows he might have to come across the situation.

“I mean, at the end of the day, contract was signed,” said the All-Pro and added, “And I know what I signed up for. We’re just focused on this year.” Surprisingly enough, the 49ers have the option to release Deebo Samuel after the 2024 season and save $21.9 million in cap space. But the 49ers aren’t just done hiring and firing talent from their roster.

A couple of months ago, the team asked their fullback Kyle Juszczyk to take a pay cut to possibly free up $1.75 million in cap space. But this is nothing compared to what Arik Armstead was asked to do. Armstead, the 49ers DE moved to the Jacksonville Jaguars because the Niners asked him to take $12 million in pay cut, which obviously made him feel “disrespected.”

“When they sent that [offer] over, I did feel extremely disrespected,” said Armstead on his podcast Third and Long. But with so many contractual issues looming around the team, they have Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, and Jauan Jennings, who are willing to go far and wide for their team. But it’s still not clear how things will pan out for Deebo Samuel.