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Deebo Samuel May Have Played in his Final Game with the 49ers

So long, Deebo, and thanks for all the memories.

Grant Cohn

Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) celebrates after a play during the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) celebrates after a play during the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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The Deebo Samuel Era with the 49ers may have just come to an abrupt end.

Samuel will miss the 49ers' season finale against the Cardinals on Sunday with injuries to his ribs and wrist. Which means he will finish the season with just 806 yards from scrimmage and 4 touchdowns. He didn't come close to living up to his expensive contract.

“It's been up and down throughout the year," head coach Kyle Shanahan said about Samuel on Friday. "Even when he is good, he is still battling stuff through the season. Especially the way he plays and running with the ball and the physicality and everything, doing the kick returns. He's hurting right now, but he'll be alright a few weeks after the season.”

Samuel always seems to be playing through some injury. And this month, he will turn 29. And next season, he will be entering the final year of his contract, and he'll be one of the most expensive players on the team.

I expect the 49ers will politely ask Samuel to take a massive pay cut this offseason -- just like they asked Arik Armstead to take one last offseason. And just like Armstead, I expect Samuel will reject the pay cut and request his release. And I expect the 49ers will grant it to him just as they granted Armstead his release.

Keeping Samuel simply wouldn't make sense, considering he would be their fourth-best wide receiver next season behind Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and Brandon Aiyuk.

So long, Deebo, and thanks for all the memories.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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