San Francisco 49ers Must Find Balance To End Deebo Samuel Saga

Terry McLaurin has grow to be the most recent extensive receiver to earn a considerable payday, receiving a three-year extension from the Washington Commanders following a stellar begin to his NFL profession, along with his deal more likely to carry the episode surrounding Deebo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers additional into focus as coaching camp approaches.

McLaurin’s extension can pay him a mean of $23.3 million a yr in new cash, in line with NFL Community’s Ian Rapoport, and retains him on the Commanders via the 2025 season.

The deal is simply reward for McLaurin’s consistency, which has seen him file back-to-back 1,000-yard season after falling 81 yards shy of that mark as a rookie.

An injury-riddled 2020 has hindered Samuel from being as constant as McLaurin, who entered the league in the identical 2019 draft class.

Nevertheless, McLaurin has not skilled a excessive level on the extent of that of Samuel, who racked up 1,770 yards from scrimmage in 2021 (1,405 receiving, 365 speeding) and scored 14 complete touchdowns – his eight speeding scores setting a single-season file for a wideout – earlier than main the offense because the Niners surged to the NFC Championship Recreation.

McLaurin now has the long-term safety his play has merited, and Samuel is theoretically the following domino to fall.

Samuel’s saga with the 49ers has been the dominant contract stand-off of the offseason on the extensive receiver place, and ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler (h/t 49ers Webzone) lately reported he has not rescinded a commerce request the Niners have refused to grant.

Nevertheless, Samuel was at necessary minicamp and, in line with Aaron Wilson of Professional Soccer Community, there’s optimism a particularly profitable deal can get performed.

Samuel’s negotiation is a tough one for the Niners due to the distinctive ‘extensive again’ function he has performed for San Francisco. He’s mentioned to be dissatisfied with serving as a large receiver and a operating again and the 49ers did draft tailback Tyrion Davis-Value within the third spherical, maybe hinting at much less of a reliance on Samuel within the backfield in 2022.

The 49ers have been recognized for putting team-friendly, backloaded contracts. They could should depart from that construction a little bit with Samuel and pay him up entrance assured cash reflective of his outsized worth to their offense.

Per Wilson, 76 p.c of McLaurin’s deal is assured at signing, along with his $28 million signing bonus surpassing the earlier excessive for a receiver of $27.5 million for DeAndre Hopkins. It might take an analogous package deal for the Niners to finish the stand-off with Samuel.

San Francisco has constantly appeared to construct team-friendly flexibility into its contracts. Nevertheless, for the Niners to achieve breaking the deadlock with Samuel, they’ll doubtless must stability that want with giving Samuel the type of substantial and speedy monetary reward which will effectively improve his willingness to fulfil the extensive again function once more in 2022.