San Francisco, CA
49ers enter draft facing big, uncomfortable question: Trade Deebo Samuel now?
In 2020, after Deebo Samuel pulled up with a hamstring harm on the primary play of a loss in opposition to Washington, the 49ers’ grim-faced broad receiver flung his helmet to a coach in frustration as he walked off the sphere.
Samuel’s response made it clear his harm was vital — he missed the season’s remaining three video games — and was proof of how his feelings usually aren’t simply hid.
In January, for instance, seconds after certainly one of his remaining information conferences of the season, Samuel was heard voicing his frustration with a reporter’s questions. Every week later, moments after the 49ers’ loss within the NFC Championship Recreation, he was the lone participant weeping on the bench.
Samuel’s playmaking and fervour, after all, offered the first gas for the 49ers’ rebound from a 3-5 begin in 2021 and earned him the crew’s most prestigious honor, the Len Eshmont Award, given for inspirational and brave play.
Nonetheless, months later, his frustration with the state of his contract extension talks with the crew is clear for all to see and has made issues uncomfortable for the 49ers getting into the NFL draft, which begins Thursday.
The 49ers have little interest in granting Samuel’s commerce request, which possible gained’t be realized except they obtain an amazing supply earlier than or throughout the first spherical. However what in the event that they maintain him? Might Samuel, who posted another social-media message Wednesday criticizing the reporting round his deadlock with the crew, make the state of affairs so disagreeable that the 49ers would want they’d dealt him when a 2022 first-round decide was probably obtainable?
Normal supervisor John Lynch expressed optimism Monday that may very well be interpreted as a perception that cooler heads would prevail, saying he was “assured” the crew may discover the “options to work by way of no matter is happening.”
The chances of that occuring would look like extra possible if Samuel stays on the roster after the draft and surveys the panorama. He may threaten to not play for the 49ers in 2022, by which he’s getting into the ultimate 12 months of his contract, however he would forfeit his wage and never earn an accrued season. Samuel would turn into an unrestricted free agent in 2023, which means the 49ers would have the suitable to match any contract supply he obtained.
If a lowball preliminary extension supply is on the root of the Samuel’s discontent, he’s not alone. Tight finish George Kittle’s agent termed the 49ers opening supply in 2020 “The Valentine’s Day Bloodbath,” and his Professional Bowl shopper was reportedly livid throughout that offseason earlier than changing into the NFL’s highest-paid tight finish on the eve of coaching camp.
All-Professional inside linebacker Fred Warner, who briefly grew to become the league’s highest-paid participant at his place final 12 months when he signed his extension in mid-July, praised the 49ers’ transparency — if not expediency — throughout negotiations.
“It takes time,” Warner stated Monday. “There’s some persistence concerned in it. … Generally some guys take longer than others. It’s simply your individual course of. I wouldn’t say there’s a cookie-cutter option to go about it. I really feel like, talking about my very own course of. I assumed it was nice. I assumed either side had been skilled.”
Samuel won’t share that sentiment. However former 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman doesn’t assume his ex-teammate’s public displeasure can have the specified outcome. Sherman acted as his personal agent when he signed an incentive-heavy, three-year contract with the 49ers in 2018, reaching an settlement with chief negotiator Paraag Marathe.
“I can’t see them buying and selling him away,” Sherman stated on his podcast this week. “I can’t see him doing something however lining up for the San Francisco 49ers and taking part in soccer.
“Do I believe Paraag and a number of the techniques that he makes use of to barter might have rubbed Deebo and different individuals the unsuitable method? I’m positive. … All through the negotiation course of, there’s haggling. There’s backwards and forwards. And I believe he’s taking it slightly extra private than different individuals have.”
If Sherman is prescient, the 49ers will maintain Samuel and perform their plan for what may very well be a low-wattage draft. Their first decide is a second-rounder, No. 61 total, and 4 of their 9 choices are within the sixth and seventh rounds.
Lynch stated this week that he’s assured concerning the state of the roster. And he recommended the 49ers may use a few of their later-round draft capital in trades to land prospects they covet.
“There’s not a ton of holes as we see it — wants,” Lynch stated. “And so that provides you the pliability to go up once you actually like a participant.”
Eric Department covers the 49ers for The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch