This NFL Trade season has broken as many hearts as it has given teams a new hope. For the Bay Area, the first scenario fits better, as far as the team members are concerned. With the official 2025 NFL season kicking off on Wednesday at 4 pm, all the planned trades got cemented. With that, Deebo Samuel and Kyle Juszczyk both bid adieu to the Levi’s Stadium.

For Deebo, finding a new home was climbing to the top of the to-do list with every season. After getting the Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods in 2021, the WR asked for his trade in 2022. However, the team worked out an extension. Many tied him to trade rumors again the next year, but nothing came out of it. But try once, try twice, third time might be the charm. And it was. The 49ers finally agreed with him in lieu of a 2025 fifth-round pick, and he chose the Capital as his next destination. But the case with the 2017 Bill Walsh Awardee was a little different.

News made rounds that the team almost showed the door to the 9x Fullback last offseason with his position fading. However, Kyle, wanting to stay with them, made a deal that cut down his paycheck. While many would have thought that the very first free agent signed by the HC Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch would get another similar offer, it didn’t happen. With this, he became just another business decision.

And now, despite both the veterans giving some skillful performances throughout their careers with San Francisco and practically lifting the team on their shoulders for long, have packed their bags to part ways. However, it was not as easy to break bonds that the two had created in the 49ers even if the trades were practically decided.

Hence, taking it to his Instagram, WR Samuel gave one last hat tip to all of his offensive teammates. One of them was Juice. “Gjuicecheck44 love ya my brother appreciate everything”— Deebo Samuel’s Instagram message to Kyle Juszczyk hit like a perfectly timed play-action pass, blending raw emotion with the kind of locker-room brotherhood that defines the NFL.

Juszczyk fired back his three-word reply—“Love you brotha”— a mic drop on a 12-year career that redefined what a fullback could be. When Samuel landed in SF in 2019, Juice was already on his second year with the team. Six years, the two played side-by-side, taking the team to Pro Bowls and to the Super Bowl in 2020 and 2024. Indeed, there would be many memories for the two. However, it was more of a shock since Kyle’s’ announcement on Monday was a sudden bomb.

Kyle Juszczyk has a way of making the little things look big. A cut block on a blitzing linebacker. A lead dive that turned a routine third-and-short into a 25-yard burst. A soft-handed catch in the flat that somehow ended with a defender eating turf. He was never the fastest or flashiest, but in a league obsessed with highlight reels, he was the glue guy—the one who made sure the show actually ran.

For years, the 49ers thrived on that foundation. The quiet sacrifices, the overlooked contributions, the kind of unglamorous work that doesn’t make the back pages but wins championships. And through it all, Juszczyk was there, helmet low, shoulders square, carving lanes for the stars around him.

Imagine a Harvard grad who went from blocking for Ray Rice in Baltimore to catching touchdowns in Super Bowls for the Niners. Juice wasn’t just a position—he was a Swiss Army knife in cleats. Need a pancake block? Done. A clutch 15-yard TD grab in Super Bowl LIV? Believe it done.

Last year, he played 17 games wearing red, gold, and white with 15 starts. He has 5 carries for 26 yards and 1 TD along with 19 receptions for 200 yards and 2 TDs. Not to mention, he made a round to his ninth to the Pro Bowl, having gone there eight times consecutively in all seasons with the 49ers. He would have landed in the Niners’ 10-year club in two years if he could continue with them.

However, his departure was set long before we got a sniff of it. Back in February during the NFL Scouting Combine, Lynch hinted, “We’re trying to make everything work and [with] some tighter constraints than we’ve had in the past.” And then we saw the 49ers sign a $20.3 million/ 3-year deal with tight end Luke Farrell on Monday.

But March 2025 brought the cold splash of reality: The 49ers cut Kyle to save $2.9M in cap space. At 34, Juice’s stats (281 receptions, 2,664 yards, 18 TDs) still pop like confetti, but in today’s NFL, even legends face the music. “That’s what living is. It’s taking a chance and putting yourself out there,” he once tweeted—a mantra that now fuels his free agency.

But he has his mind set already to begin fresh no matter what jersey he wears. He told ESPN after San Francisco’s season-ending January loss to the Arizona Cardinals, already unsure of his future with the team, “I know I’m not done. I’m definitely not done playing. I’ve seen zero regression. I think especially, I mean, you can turn on the last two games and please show me where I’ve regressed, so I have no plans of stopping.”

Teams in win-now mode (cough Bills, Ravens cough) should be blowing up his phone. Because let’s be real, who else can quote Nietzsche while bulldozing linebackers? While Kyle is in search for a new team, Deebo is giving advice to many more Niners with his final notes.

Deebo Samuel’s DMs & the Purdy payday push

While the Niners are busy restructuring, one contract they seem to be quite keen on extending is that with the QB Brock Purdy. Last week, NFL Insider Albert Breer told Rich Eisen on his YouTube show, “I think the number, I think that the Niners would like to keep it in the 4s and Purdy’s camp in the 5s… I think that they that they weren’t able to kind of get some traction early, shows there is a little bit of a divide between the sides right now, and it’s going to take some time to get through this…

“There’s a disagreement in where they stand. But the Niners are telling you publicly and privately that Brock Purdy is their guy. I don’t know if they wanna go with a contract year with him but I don’t think anything is off the table right now. They’ve obviously got the franchise tag if they wanna use it in 2026.”

Meanwhile, Deebo Samuel—the two-way machine—was busy playing Yoda to Brock Purdy’s Luke Skywalker. “Get what you deserve family,” he posted to the QB on his Instagram story, echoing the same fiery mentorship he once showed dodging tacklers.

Brock became part of the Niners back in 2022 as a nobody but quickly climbed the ranks to today become one of the best QBs in the league. With his fourth and final year of the rookie contract on the line with the team, he has his expectations set: A multi-year deal with $40 million in annual average salary. A low-end of respectful QB pay for sure.

On Wednesday, NFL also announced performance bonus for the QB. Coming with a $5.2 million this season, he now adds $857,842.50 to his total earnings of the season. He has certainly earned some credibility. He made Pro Bowl in 2023 while leading the NFL in total QBR and yards per attempt. Now, he stands at 27-15 record as a starter which even includes the playoffs. No wonder why Deebo wants him to speak up if denied a good payment.

But Deebo’s real legacy? That unshakable bond with Purdy. “What really sticks out about Brock… he’s so hard on himself,” Samuel said last November, a nod to the QB’s 4,280-yard MVP-caliber 2023 (3,864-20 in ’24). Their chemistry was a gridiron ballet: Week 10’s 129-yard showcase against the Giants, that 76-yard lightning bolt vs. Seattle—poetry in motion.

The NFL’s a revolving door of jerseys and jargon, but stories like Juszczyk and Samuel’s stick. Juice, the Ivy League mauler turned cult hero, hunting one last ride. Deebo, the South Carolina storm now brewing in D.C., still texting his QB to “secure the bag.” It’s a league where Harvard brains meet hip-shaking TDs, where cap casualties spark new beginnings. As the great Vince Lombardi (and probably Ted Lasso) once said: “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” And these two? They’re not ones for staying down.