The San Francisco 49ers have seen their season slip away from them over the past few weeks. Projected to be one of the top teams in the NFL in 2024, they have endured a serious Super Bowl hangover after coming up short in last year’s big game, and their championship window could be making a rapid close.
Could Deebo Samuel Be Cut Or Traded In The Off-Season?
They will have some serious decisions to make in the coming years. They have 12 players who are scheduled to make over $9 million for the 2025 season, all while quarterback Brock Purdy will be searching for his first big pay day after making just over $1 million this year. There will undoubtedly be some cap casualties this coming off-season, and some of the faces that have become familiar to 49ers fans may be playing in their final games with San Francisco.
Deebo Samuel is one of the names to watch. The 6th year wide receiver is set to see his contract balloon in 2025, as his earnings will jump from $12.2 million to over $28 million next season. It is scheduled to be the second-largest cap hit of any players on the 49ers roster, less than $1 million behind Fred Warner’s earnings, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the player’s production is no longer matching the payments.
Deebo Samuel has been held to fewer than 25 scrimmage yards for the third straight game.
This is the longest such streak of his career.
— Underdog NFL (@Underdog__NFL) December 2, 2024
Samuel earned his big pay day after a career year. During the 2021 season, his 18.2 yards per reception led the NFL, and he racked up 14 combined touchdowns as well as 1,405 yards through the air. He had emerged as one of the more versatile offensive weapons in the league, and got paid like it. During the summer of 2022, Deebo Samuel signed a three-year contract extension worth $73.5 million.
His production dropped off immediately. His yards per game was nearly cut in half just one season later, and scored just 5 combined touchdowns in 13 games played in 2022. The scoring saw a bit of improvement in 2023 as he found the end zone 12 times, but he failed to reach 1,000 yards for the second straight year.
In 2024, he’s not even close. Samuel has been a large part of the struggles for the 49ers this season, as he is averaging just over 55 combined receiving and rushing yards per contest through 11 games played. He has scored just two touchdowns.
Dead Cap Figure Could Confuse Things
So while it would make sense for the 49ers to look into cutting ties this off-season, the dead cap figure on Samuel’s contract could be too much to swallow. Trading him would actually cost San Francisco some cap space, as his dead cap number sits at $31.5 million with his contract “only” paying out $28.2 million. But should they release him with a post-June 1st designation, that dead cap figure would be transposed over two seasons instead of one.
That would mean that the 49ers would be saving about $5 million, which may not be quite enough to justify a release of a player who still has the potential to be productive.
The 49ers are currently sitting at 5-7 and have seen their playoff odds drop all the way down to 8%. They have lost three straight contests, and still have two divisional games to play, as well as a meeting with the NFC-leading Lions in Week 17.
