All 49ers

The 49ers Can Make Deebo Samuel a Post June 1st Release Next Year

Seems like a solid plan.
Grant Cohn|
49ers team listen to a song in the tunnel to get them going before their away game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park on Dec. 1, 2024. Leading the team in song and dance are Deebo Samuel Sr. and Jauan Jennings, both wide receivers.
49ers team listen to a song in the tunnel to get them going before their away game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park on Dec. 1, 2024. Leading the team in song and dance are Deebo Samuel Sr. and Jauan Jennings, both wide receivers. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers recently restructured Javon Hargrave's contract presumably so they can more easily designate him a post-June-1 release next year.

Turns out, the 49ers did the same thing with Arik Armstead last year and Deebo Samuel earlier this year.

"The 49ers have the ability to designate Deebo Samuel a post June 1 release next year following a creative restructure of his contract this past (September)," writes OverTheCap analyst Jason Fitzgerald. "This is a recent trend, started by the Eagles a few years ago, where they are essentially finding ways to manage their salary cap by getting the players to sign off on restructures that make it easier for the player to be released on the salary cap. The 49ers should have around $55 million in effective cap space for 2025, with a QB extension likely on the horizon for the team."

As you may remember, the 49ers asked Armstead to take a drastic pay cut this past offseason which he refused. Then he requested his release and the 49ers granted it to him with a post-June-1 designation.

It seems the 49ers could do something similar with Samuel in a few months. His cap number currently is scheduled to be nearly $16 million in 2025 and he has no guaranteed money left on his deal. The 49ers could ask him to take a pay cut that would pay him a fraction of what he's on track to make. And if/when he declines, they could release him like they released Armstead.

Seems like a solid plan.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News