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Will the 49ers Regret Trading Deebo Samuel to the Commanders?

Instead of trading Samuel to the Commanders, maybe the 49ers could have kept him and brought back Welker to coach him.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Trading Deebo Samuel was the right move for the 49ers. And ultimately, they didn't have a choice, considering Samuel requested the trade. But they didn't have to send him to the Commanders.

All the 49ers got in return was a measly fifth-round draft pick. It's not like the Commanders made them an offer they couldn't refuse. The 49ers could have sent him anywhere else for a late pick, preferably somewhere in the AFC so the 49ers won't have to face him.

Because now Samuel is on an excellent team in the NFC with an excellent quarterback, an excellent head coach and an excellent wide receivers coach -- Wes Welker. The Commanders just hired him yesterday after he recently left the Miami Dolphins.

Keep in mind, Welker was the 49ers' wide receivers coach from 2019 to 2021 -- arguably the best years of Samuel's career. In 2021, he was a first-team All Pro and probably should have won the Offensive Player of the Year Award and maybe the MVP. He was that great.

Then Welker left for the Dolphins and Samuel's conditioning and performance gradually deteriorated. It turns out Welker was the one holding Samuel accountable when he was young. Since he signed a big contract extension in 2022, no one seems to hold him accountable anymore. At least not on the 49ers.

Now the Commanders have reunited him with Welker, which means Samuel just might have one more excellent season in him.

In retrospect, instead of trading Samuel to the Commanders, maybe the 49ers could have kept him and brought back Welker to coach him.

Just a thought.

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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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