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49ers GM John Lynch had a lot to say about Deebo Samuel’s situation on Monday. Although Lynch consistently refused to discuss how the relationship had progressed to the point where Deebo made a trade request, Lynch said enough to suggest that if the 49ers received an offer, they would not that they cannot refuse.
Here’s the key line from the transcript provided by the team: “Since we’ve been here, we’ve been consistently listening to just about everyone. We will always do that.”
In other words, Deebo is not untouchable. Even so, it will be difficult to touch him. Twice Lynch said he couldn’t imagine walking away from Deebo. That means it’ll take an offer Lynch and trainer Kyle Shanahan couldn’t imagine to spark a trade.
“He’s just too good a player,” Lynch said. “You think of 2019, the 36th choice to find someone like Deebo, who for me was just a game-changer for our franchise. I told Deebo that, I think he’s the perfect illustration. Herm Edwards always said that when will meets skill, you have the opportunity to be something special. And I think Deebo probably embodies that more than anyone else, he has tremendous will, he’s a very talented player. I think it’s inspirational because of the way he’s playing, and that’s leadership for me. Do you make the people around you better? He ticks that box. He’s a great teammate. And I think about things like before games, I go out and he always throws the ball to the fans. I think he was a great member of our community so we have nothing but love for him and nothing but appreciation for what he bought, but you just don’t let guys like that go. I can’t think of a scenario where we would do that.”
But Lynch would certainly have said three months ago that he can’t imagine a scenario where Samuel no longer wants to be part of the team, no longer wants to be a member of the community. While it’s still unknown how that happened, the reality is that the 49ers failed in some way to ensure they had the right relationship with Samuel. If they hadn’t, he wouldn’t want out.
Lynch said the 49ers spoke to Samuel. It’s possible that at this point, the 49ers are hoping to get through the draft and hope Deebo realizes he has no real options if he wants to play football in 2022.
Still, it’s hard to have much faith in the team’s future dealings with Samuel, considering their past efforts have resulted in Samuel no longer wanting to be part of the team.