The Deebo Samuel-49ers drama had been building up for weeks but hit a boiling point Wednesday.
Hours after ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported Deebo requested a trade, the discontented wide receiver deleted a tweet saying that he and agent Tory Dandy should be the only trusted sources of information.
Longtime NFL insider Peter King joined 95.7 The Game’s “Damon & Ratto” Wednesday to share his insights on the ugly situation. Check out the full interview above.
"I doubt sincerely that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have thought seriously about trading Deebo Samuel,” King told hosts Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto. “That is gonna have to be a pretty rapid decision if you’re gonna get it done in the span of eight days (before the NFL Draft). We’ll see.”
It’s worth noting that Dandy also represents premier wide receivers DK Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks and A.J. Brown of the Tennessee Titans. Perhaps Dandy is trying to set a market price for his clients near the $28 million annually that Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs negotiated this offseason.
“I’m sure that it is something that all of those guys are thinking about,” King said. “I love Deebo Samuel and everybody loves Deebo Samuel, but he basically has had one great year. Those other guys we’re talking about have had more than one great year. Not that he doesn’t deserve the money that he deserves, because he is a unicorn player. But, you have to understand that he does not have the same resume as those other guys.”
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Including the playoffs, Samuel racked up 16 total touchdowns and more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage as a wide receiver and running back during his superb 2021 campaign. Before that, though, Samuel was known as a talented, but injury-prone player who only appeared in 18 of 32 regular-season games in his first two seasons.
Deebo flourished under Shanahan’s guidance last year in his dual-threat role, though it’s reportedly now a source of malcontent. Still, King doesn’t seem worried that this is definitely headed toward a breakup.
“This is a story, there's no question about it,” King said. “It's a significant story -- but I don't look at this right now and say, 'Oh my God, Deebo Samuel's never gonna play for the 49ers again.'”
