Why 2024 Could be Deebo Samuel's Final Season with the 49ers

Technically, the 49ers can afford to overpay Samuel for one more season, because they're spending next to nothing on the most expensive position -- quarterback.

Grant Cohn | Mar 31, 2024

Feb 8, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19) during a press / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The most overpaid player on the 49ers roster right now is Deebo Samuel and it's not even close.

It was Arik Armstead before the 49ers released -- he was scheduled to take up more than $28 million of the 49ers' salary cap this season. Now he's on the Jaguars, and Deebo Samuel has taken the title of most overpaid player on the team, considering he will take up more than $28 million of the 49ers' cap space next season. That's almost 10 percent, which is quarterback money.

Technically, the 49ers can afford to overpay Samuel for one more season, because they're spending next to nothing on the most expensive position -- quarterback. But next year, they'll have to give a massive contract extension to Brock Purdy, most likely making him the highest-paid player in the NFL. And then they won't be able to justify Samuel's contract anymore.

Samuel is a luxury at this point in his career. He's not a No. 1 wide receiver anymore, and he's not a running back, either. He's an extremely expensive No. 2 wide receiver who misses games every year and will be 29 next season.

Samuel used to be the focal point of the 49ers offense, but he's not anymore. The foundation of the passing game is the connection between Brock Purdy and Brandon Aiyuk, and that won't change any time soon.

So in 2025, don't be surprised if the 49ers trade Deebo Samuel and free up more than $9 million in salary cap space. He won't have any guaranteed money left on his deal at that point, so trading him would be easy.

And remember, he requested a trade a few years ago, so the 49ers simply would be giving him what he wants.

Published Mar 31, 2024

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.