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Deebo Samuel Reportedly Wants to be the Highest Paid Non-Quarterback in the NFL

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver reportedly wants to be the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL.

Grant Cohn

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More power to Deebo Samuel.

He apparently wants to be the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, according to Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. 

The NFL's highest-paid non-quarterback currently is Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who's earning an average of $30 million per season. Which means Samuel wants more than $30 million per season. Plus it means he wants more money than teammate Nick Bosa, who also is up for an extension and is worth roughly $30 million per season.

Still, Samuel's contract request is not outrageous. I firmly believe he was the MVP of the NFL last season -- by far the most valuable non quarterback. Without him, the 49ers probably would have won five or six games and their offense would have been horrible. As opposed to 2020, when Nick Bosa missed all but two games and the defense still ranked No. 5 in the NFL.

The 49ers absolutely should give Samuel what he wants, because he's worth it. And they can afford to give him what he wants, because their quarterback, Trey Lance, is earning an average of just $8.5 million per season. So they can afford to splurge on an offensive weapon.

The 49ers should front-load Samuel's contract and give him lots of guaranteed money in 2023 and 2024 when Lance will still be on his rookie contract. Then, the 49ers can give themselves an out in Samuel's contract in 2025 if they need it, considering longevity is a major question for him. And this arrangement would appeal to him because he would get roughly $70 million in the first two seasons of his contract and then he possibly could become a free agent once again before he turns 30.

Win-win.

Pay the man.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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