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John Lynch says He Expects Deebo Samuel to Play for the 49ers in 2025

This might not be the news you want to here.

Grant Cohn

Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (right) look on prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (right) look on prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images / Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images
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This might not be the news you want to here.

Despite coming off the worst season of his career, the 49ers intend to bring Deebo Samuel back to the team in 2025.

“Deebo’s under contract," John Lynch reminded reporters at the 49ers' end-of-season press conference on Wednesday. "A good player and has done a ton for this organization and we're not in the business of letting good players out of here."

With all due respect, John, are we talking about the same Deebo Samuel?

He used to be a good player, but he isn't one anymore. He's almost 29 and he no longer is an effective wide receiver because he cannot beat man-to-man coverage. Next season, he most likely would be fourth on the depth chart behind Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and Brandon Aiyuk.

In addition, Samuel also isn't an effective running back anymore -- he averaged just 3.2 yards per carry this season.

Furthermore, Samuel is a malcontent. He taunted his kicker and punched his long-snapper on the sideline during a game, then complained about not getting the ball enough after a win. The more the 49ers try to get Samuel involved in the offense, the worse it performs. Getting rid of him would be addition by subtraction.

One can only hope that the 49ers secretly hope to trade Deebo Samuel and don't want to torpedo his trade value any more than he already has. Otherwise, they're making an incredibly large mistake.

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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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