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Why the 49ers Should Trade Deebo Samuel if They Can

Not only is he injury-prone and overpaid, he's also a malcontent who has complained about his lack of touches on social media after wins and has put his hands on teammates on the sidelines during games.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (right) look on prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (right) look on prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images | Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

This week, Cooper Kupp announced that the Rams have decided to trade him this offseason. The 49ers should make the same decision about Deebo Samuel.

He's just as washed up and overpaid as Kupp. Neither wide receiver can get himself open at this point in their careers. They're simply taking snaps away from younger, better players.

That's why the Rams have decided to get rid of Kupp no matter what they get in return. It's time to move on. Thank you for your service, Cooper. I'm sure they'll put his number in their ring of honor one day and maybe even throw him a parade, but he can't play for them anymore. Sorry.

Which brings us back to Samuel. Not only is he injury-prone and overpaid, he's also a malcontent who has complained about his lack of touches on social media after wins and has put his hands on teammates on the sidelines during games. Oh, and he just wore a Kelly green Philadelphia Eagles jersey to the Super Bowl this week. The 49ers would be better off without him.

Here's the tricky part. Samuel's cap number in 2025 will be nearly $15.9 million. If they trade him or cut him, they'll take on a dead-cap penalty of $31.55 million. So that's a big reason to keep him.

But if they keep him, he has a void year on his contract that will cost the 49ers nearly $20.8 million in 2026 when he no longer is on the team. So one way or another, they'll have to pay to see him go.

They should take the hit now. To be honest, they should have taken it years ago.

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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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