When people noticed that Deebo Samuel was cleaning his Instagram account of 49ers mentions, many fans said it was much ado about nothing. Yesterday things may have taken another step in a bad direction.
In his latest column for NBC Sports Bay Area, Matt Maiocco writes:
“There was no indication that the 49ers were openly buying Samuel in a trade. But coach Kyle Shanahan said it himself a year ago: No one on the team is off-limits to trade talks. He and Lynch would consider any legitimate offer.”
View the source here. NFL teams use the media to constantly get their message out, and it’s no secret that Matt has very close ties to the 49ers. Very. Firmly. While it may be true that the Niners didn’t publicly add Deebo Samuel to the trading bloc, Matt Maiocco just did.
Teams have probably already reached out to Samuel when his Instagram page was scorched earth, but this is like a boost in power for that signal. Call the team, they’ll listen. And before you start, spare me the “teams listen to everyone” comeback. No they don’t. If someone called the Chiefs to trade for Patrick Mahomes, the call would be over before they could finish the question. Kansas City hangs up the phone and returns to real life. That’s what you do when you’re not ready to trade with someone. Clearly, according to the godfather of the 49er beat authors, they wouldn’t do that with Deebo.
Then there’s this sudden pivot from Matt on what Deebo’s new contract should look like:
“It’s hard to justify Samuel’s next deal reaching the Adams, Hill and Diggs realms. After all, these players have been some of the league’s most explosive and consistent receivers over the past half-dozen seasons. Logically, Samuel’s next contract should be between $20 and $22 million annually. There. That’s the easy part.”
However, as of March 31, Matt’s predictions for Deebo’s deal were slightly higher:
“[Adams’ and Hill’s] Deals actually make things a lot easier for both sides, sources told NBC Sports Bay Area this week at the NFL Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Fla. … Based on the deals signed around the NFL this offseason, the true numbers too Samuel’s contract can be expected to be as much as $22 million per season and likely as high as $24 million per year in renewals.”
Why should the floor of March 31st become the ceiling on April 11th? Especially after sources at the league meetings (with John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan and Jed York) said that Hill and Adams’ contracts make things easier? Again, remember this isn’t some random egg on Twitter making a wild guess. This is Matt Maiocco, the guy who’s been overseeing this team for almost three decades.
As we’ve said before, that doesn’t mean Deebo will definitely be traded. George Kittle’s contract negotiations ran ugly for a while before brokering a deal two years ago. But as we wrote last week, the team probably wants a trade offer in their pocket, and this is one way to help get that.
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