Over the last six days or so, Deebo Samuel getting traded seemed to be more of a “when” than “if” scenario.
For reasons still not totally clear, the San Francisco 49ers star wide receiver/running back wants a trade. There have been a variety of reports on why he wants out – from dissatisfaction with how many carries he gets to a desire to be back on the east coast.
No one knows for sure what the plan is. The 49ers appear to know how much of a gut-punch it would be to them if they traded Samuel, but at a certain point if someone doesn’t want to be there and they’re a star player, there’s generally a high level of success in getting out.
This is a unique situation though, and NFL Media insider Peter Schrager explained Monday on the "Rich Eisen Show" why he's of the belief that Samuel is going nowhere.
“I don’t know (why he wants to be traded). I’ve heard so many things,” Schrager said (26:53 mark in the player above). “I don’t think San Francisco is going to trade him, and if he is traded I think it will be in the next couple days, I don’t think it will be draft day. Just knowing how valuable he is to (head coach Kyle Shanahan) and knowing how much they love him in San Francisco, I don’t think they want to hold him hostage in any way, but I can’t imagine they can’t overcome their differences and make this thing work.
“Ian Rapoport said earlier this month that they do want to pay him. They do, I know they do. And I think that they will pay him and I do believe they are trying desperately to figure this thing out because he’s such a special player for them. And he might be more valuable to them than any other team in the NFL. …
“I think there’s a lot of things coming out of Deebo’s camp, we haven’t heard from him directly. I don’t know. It’s a different time, players want to be where they want to be, if he was to actually be traded from San Francisco I would be shocked but I can’t be surprised by anything at this point. Davante Adams left Green Bay, which seemed like a pretty good situation to me as well.”
That basically echoes what general manager John Lynch said in a press conference Monday as he sidestepped a firing squad of questions about the situation.
“We’ve got nothing but love for him and nothing for appreciation for what he’s brought,” Lynch said. “You just don’t let guys like that walk. I don’t envision a scenario where we would.”
It’s also worth mentioning that if Samuel holds out this year, he would actually become a restricted free agent instead of an unrestricted free agent next offseason. So if he’s intent on getting out of San Francisco but the 49ers won’t trade him, his best bet might actually be to just show up and play.
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