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Report: The Ravens Want to Trade for 49ers WR Deebo Samuel

If the 49ers were to trade Samuel after June 1, they would save more than $22 million against the cap.

Grant Cohn

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Teams apparently have been calling the 49ers about the availability of a certain wide receiver, and it's not Brandon Aiyuk, at least not yet.

The Baltimore Ravens recently called the 49ers and asked if they could trade for Deebo Samuel, according to Jason La Canfora, who said the 49ers' answer was no, at least not now. Interesting answer.

It's easy to see why the 49ers wouldn't want to trade Samuel now. Trading him now would create less than $7 million in salary cap space and would create more than $21 million in dead cap. In addition, it's unclear how high of a draft pick the 49ers would get in return for Samuel and his bloated contract, or if that draft pick would be better than Samuel next season when the 49ers are making another Super Bowl run. So there are three reasons not to trade Samuel now.

But if the 49ers were to trade Samuel after June 1, they would save more than $22 million against the cap. Of course, they couldn't trade him for a 2024 draft pick at that time, but they could trade him for a player, perhaps at another position. An offensive lineman. A tight end. A cornerback. Because once the 49ers extend Brandon Aiyuk's contract, do they really need two extremely expensive wide receivers when they pass the pass less than every other team in the league?

What does Brock Purdy need more: an expensive gadget player who isn't quite a running back or a wide receiver, or a better offensive line?

Seems like the 49ers should explore a Samuel trade after June 1.

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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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