It goes so fast. Just a few years ago, Deebo Samuel was one of the most feared players in the league and the personification of the best and feistiest things the 49ers believed about themselves.
And now, Deebo is a Washington Commander, with the 49ers happily taking a $31.5 million dead-cap hit just to get a fifth-round pick back in return. They could’ve just cut Deebo with a post-June 1 designation and split up the cap hits over this and next year. But doing it in a trade feels like a message — the 49ers’ front office wanted Deebo to know that, after his multiple trade requests over the years and the bitter contract negotiations in 2022, he was only worth the 148th pick in April’s draft. And they still did it.
Because he’s everything the 49ers didn’t want to be in 2025.
That’s how the NFL and specifically the wide-receiver actuarial table works and how clinically the 49ers’ top executives are evaluating things after paying so much guaranteed money in recent seasons without picking up a new Super Bowl trophy along the way. Free-falling to 6-11 last year while watching Deebo get out of shape and lumber through a dreadful individual season added accelerant to everything.
The trade won’t be official until the March 12 start of the new league year, but we’ve learned some important things about the 49ers through the whole Deebo experience, and especially from the ending. Generally, there will be consequences when highly-paid players and rosters underperform.
Here are seven other things we’ve learned from this:
1. There was lingering frustration with Deebo’s Super Bowl performance
I asked a few NFL people when the tide really changed for Deebo inside 49ers HQ and the answer I kept getting: the Super Bowl in February 2024, when Kyle Shanahan repeatedly tried to get the ball to Deebo, who failed to produce much of anything. He caught 3 passes for 33 yards, ran it 3 times for 8 yards, and was a complete non-factor — when one big play might’ve won it all.
A great 2024 season from Deebo could’ve changed the mood. But he never got going, suffered a few injuries, complained about not getting enough chances, and just looked slow and undynamic. The 49ers lost Brandon Aiyuk midseason, and it was Jauan Jennings, not Deebo, who took over as Brock Purdy’s best and favorite WR target. After all that, there was no way the 49ers were going to pay out the full value of Deebo’s contract. And Deebo didn’t want a pay cut. So now he’s a Commander.
Could this blow up on the 49ers? Sure. Deebo’s a true playmaker and remained one of Shanahan’s favorite players through the season. He’ll be highly motivated. But Deebo should’ve been motivated last year, too, and it was a clunker.
2. The 49ers are so down on Deebo they handed him to a rising NFC rival
Teams usually try to place their exiting stars in the other conference, so they’re not jousting with him repeatedly in big games. But the 49ers weren’t so worried about that with Deebo, even though Washington raced to the NFC Championship Game last January and has a great young quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Also, the 49ers had zero problem trading Deebo to Washington general manager Adam Peters, who was John Lynch’s first hire when Lynch was putting together the 49ers’ front office in 2017. It’s always easier to make deals with people you know. But there have been some public indications that the Peters-49ers relationship hasn’t been the warmest since he left. A year ago, both Lynch and Shanahan brusquely waved off any idea that losing Peters was a blow to their operation.
The 49ers won’t look good if a Deebo/Peters team knocks them out in the playoffs or rises to the Super Bowl before they do. The 49ers clearly don’t think this will happen.
3. The 49ers were preparing to exit the Deebo business as far back as 2022 — and told him so
During those rough negotiations, I heard that a 49ers negotiator told Deebo or his agent that he didn’t deserve the kind of massive extension other players were receiving because he wasn’t going to last that long at the top of the game.
Specifically, the 49ers didn’t think his style of play — and, quite frankly, his training habits — would lead to much production into his late-20s and 30s. So they wouldn’t budge from keeping it to a three-year extension, not four or five years like other WRs and other 49ers have received. That set up the 49ers to move on from him this offseason.
4. The 49ers are on the lookout for veteran defensive line upgrades
ESPN and The Athletic reported that former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jonathan Allen’s name came up in the Deebo trade talks but the two sides couldn’t figure out how to get Allen’s big salary into the deal. That makes sense — the 49ers have enough veteran high-salaried players coming off of injury this year. But I’m sure the 49ers will have a lot of interest in Allen if he gets cut and they can get him at a much-reduced salary.
Also, I continue to believe that the 49ers will check out the market for a few high-profile defensive ends if they should come available on the trade market.
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5. They don’t think they have to add a star receiver to replace Deebo
No, the 49ers won’t be in on Tee Higgins if he hits free agency. And I doubt they want to draft a WR with the 11th pick in the draft — that’s probably pegged for an offensive or defensive lineman.
In their minds, the 49ers basically already had to replace Deebo last year, when he only produced 806 yards receiving and rushing. Jennings has already replaced Deebo at the top of the WR pecking order. The 49ers believe there’s much more to come from Ricky Pearsall. They’ve got Jacob Cowing. And I’ve heard positive things about Terique Owens, who got a look from the 49ers in camp last year and was on the practice squad through the season. They can also sign a solid veteran or two in free agency and maybe use a middle-round pick (hey, what about a fifth-rounder?) for WR depth.
6. There could be other cost-cutting moves coming up — but not in the Brock Purdy negotiations
As Lynch said last week, the 49ers are looking to slow down the cash spending after they’ve been near the top of the league in that category for a few years (due to all of the big bonuses they’ve paid out to their stars).
Fullback Kyle Juszczyk probably will be asked to take a pay cut for the second straight year. And the NFL Network reported that the 49ers are listening to trade offers for Aiyuk. Trading Aiyuk now would produce another huge dead-cap hit, which seems almost impossible to do in the same cycle as taking the hit for Deebo. More likely, the real decision will come in the 2026 offseason. If Aiyuk struggles this season, the countdown for his own 49ers tenure will be ticking fast next March.
But even the toughest 49ers negotiators probably aren’t too interested in going through a messy negotiation with Purdy. It’d be self-defeating to get QB1 bothered enough by hardline negotiations to possibly make him skip OTAs, minicamp, and maybe even some of training camp. Just blow up the 2025 season if that happens.
It’s possible that the 49ers’ initial offers will be for a shorter term than other top QBs have received recently. And there might be more mentions that Purdy is under contract for this year at $5.2 million (thanks to the NFL escalator that boosted this year’s salary after he made the Pro Bowl in 2023).
But franchise QBs almost always get new deals with one year left on their contracts. Smart teams want to show commitment to the player, and the player wants the security of knowing he has the team’s commitment. Purdy doesn’t seem like he wants to wrangle over this, but treating him like a middle-tier QB would send a very weird signal to everybody. He’s a team leader, has played at a high level, is just 25, and fits perfectly with Shanahan. Without Purdy fully on board, what would the 49ers have at QB?
The 49ers shouldn’t be determined to win this negotiation just because they’ve lost several previous ones. I don’t think Purdy believes he needs a blowout win in this deal, either. Common sense should prevail. But if the two sides start out far apart and there’s no budging for weeks … who knows.
7. This isn’t necessarily about the front office trying to be cheap
I don’t think the 49ers’ focus on cash this offseason means there’s an edict to avoid big deals this cycle. I just think there’s an intense determination not to do bad ones.
Top execs instantly regretted the Aiyuk deal last year. They didn’t like the Deebo deal three years ago. They haven’t loved the record-setting Nick Bosa deal. They haven’t been super-thrilled about the rich extensions signed by Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams last year … before both promptly got hurt for much of the season.
So let’s see where the numbers end up this offseason. I think the 49ers are still interested in expensive players — if it makes sense. They definitely need to keep their best players under contract, and they need a few new top-end guys. I think they’ll pay market value to remain as Super Bowl contenders. At least for now. But if they start acting like a cheap team, not a smart one, they won’t be Super Bowl contenders for long. And if they drop out of that mix, it might be hell to ever get back in.