Could Cardinals Trade for Deebo Samuel?

In the latest trade news/NFL drama (which ever you prefer to call it), San Francisco 49ers standout receiver Deebo Samuel is asking for a trade.

Samuel is quite a polarizing player, given his extensive injury, history, but his other worldly explosiveness when the ball touches his hands, his market value will be interesting to say the least… But I can imagine plenty of teams would be willing to kick the tires on the former Pro Bowler for the right value.

Could the Arizona Cardinals be one of his suitors?

It may be hard to imagine, considering the Cardinals and the Niners are division rivals in the NFC West. But we have still seen instances throughout league history teams will make trades within the division; sometimes even big names.

Just a handful of years ago, the Browns traded star cornerback Joe Haden to the division rival Steelers. History shows us that was a bad decision by Cleveland, as Haden resurrected his career in Pittsburgh. But at the time, it was a very similar situation to what San Francisco has with Samuel.

Both Haden and Samuel have had stellar careers that were plagued by injury. At their heights and with 100% health, they’ve been amongst the best in the league at their respective positions. But their inconsistencies led to their original teams willingness to ship them off.

This is the point that the 49ers have arrived at with Samuel. This doesn’t mean that Samuel will move on and resurrect his success with a new team, but there’s always that chance — as there is for any trade.

The question now becomes which team(s) are willing to take a shot on Mr. Do-It-All?

It makes the most sense for teams that are contending for championships to look at him the most. Teams like the Chiefs, Bills or even the Cowboys could fancy a player like Samuel. And again, for the right price, he could be worth it.

What we curious about is whether or not the Cardinals should call about him.

It’s not the craziest thing to fathom. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson proved to be starters at the next level, with the former having the potential to one day turn into a superstar. Beyond those two is a lack of depth, but there’s also a lack of veteran experience on the team.

Insert Samuel.

The six year pro out of South Carolina has been amongst the leads better receivers when he’s at 100%. What makes him so special is his versatility however. Samuel has proven to be a good receiver with dynamic explosiveness the moment the ball gets in his hands.

What’s so intriguing, and certainly unique, about Samuel is how good he is Out of the backfield at a borderline running back. It’s what has made. Samuel stand out since he got into the league.

That kind of versatility, and especially his experience would make him a valuable asset to a Cardinals offense that is lacking a bit of both. So yes, Arizona might be in the market to add the six year pro.

But the important question remains… What will be the compensation to get him?

Potential offer:

AZ receives… Deebo Samuel

SF receives… conditional 2026 Fourth-Round pick (can become a third)

The value of this trade will have people agreeing and disagreeing, and I completely understand why.

For starters, with the 49ers be willing to wait a year for their compensation? It’s easy to imagine other teams would be willing to move capital this year.

The Cardinals could do that as well, but as we’ve said many times before, they don’t have a ton of ammunition as it stands. That makes it more difficult to move picks for 2025.

However, what the Cards could do is kick the can down the road and mortgage of future draft pick.

On paper, the 2026 NFL Draft looks to be a deeper class than this year’s. So if you’re willing to wait a year and see how the class works out, it could be in your favor.

This is also something that should intrigue Arizona. I’ve said before that the Cardinals need to focus on this year‘s draft and nailing their pics since they are all in on competing this year.

Part of competing this year is retaining ammunition and adding talent.

A day three pick for former First-Team All-Pro wide receiver may be a hard cell… But San Francisco must remember that not only has Samuel struggle to stay on the field, but he struggled even more so to live up to the contract extension he signed not long ago.

A cap-rich Cardinals team could influence the Niners to take a lesser pick by offering to pick up the entirety of his remaining contract.

This could seem an ideal considering what the Cardinals are doing with Kyler, Murray’s contract, but it’s still something they can afford to do while adding a great player.

And the cherry on top would be to add compensation to the pick. To sell San Francisco on moving Samuel within the division, Arizona could make their day three pick a conditional selection.

My ideal scenario is offering a fourth-round pick that can turn into a third round pick based on a few conditions.

Those can range from how many games he plays to a certain number of statistics that he records. This way if Samuel works out like the Cardinals will hope he does, The 49ers will at least receive better compensation.

It’s incentive that works both ways. For Arizona, they’re getting the most bang for their buck from a stud receiver. For San Francisco, they ship off a clearly unsatisfied, Samuel, unload his contract, and receive a decent draft pick that could become better.

As I said, this could be a tough cell for both sides to happen period. But I think a deal like this could be convincing for both sides.

To me, this comes down to whether the Cardinals are interested in Samuel at all, and if the Niners are willing to risk keeping Samuel in the NFC West.

Should the teams be willing to do those two conditions, we could definitely see something like this happen.

For myself, I’m not sure if I’m either team if I’m willing to do it, but an incentive laced deal could get it done.