The San Francisco 49ers have an embarrassment of riches at the wide receiver position. That was already the case entering the offseason and then they selected two wide receivers in the 2024 NFL Draft over the first four rounds. In this era of football, it isn’t a bad idea to load up on receiving weapons, but there is a larger narrative at play.
Dating back almost three months now, the possibility of them trading one of their receivers has been a central talking point in the Pittsburgh media and things appear to be heating up on the national media front as well. This morning on ESPN’s Get Up, Dan Graziano and Louis Riddick discussed the possibility of a trade involving either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel.
“Clearly, John Lynch is preparing for one of these guys to not be there,” Riddick said. “You don’t draft Ricky Pearsall in the first round out of Florida when you think that both Brandon and Deebo are gonna be there. You don’t draft Jacob Cowing outta Arizona in the fourth. You don’t pay Jauan Jennings…So I think they’re planning for the eventual exodus of one of these guys. My bet would be that it will be Deebo.”
Samuel signed a three-year contract extension in 2022, and they structured the deal with voidable years to help spread out the cap hit. He is still under contract for two more seasons, but his base salary and cap hits are both very large and the 49ers still need to figure out what they are doing with Brandon Aiyuk. They also have QB Brock Purdy’s deal coming around the corner next offseason, which forces them to look at the big picture. Could they go all-in this season and carry a bunch of large cap hits after narrowly losing the 2023 Super Bowl? Sure they could, but there are too many signs to ignore when it comes to a possible trade.
The rapidly inflating WR contract market has applied increased pressure on the Aiyuk negotiation. Things will only get worse if CeeDee Lamb or even Tyreek Hill receive new contracts in the coming weeks and months leading up to the season. The longer the 49ers wait, the more difficult this decision could become.
“Brandon Aiyuk [is] heading into his fifth-year option season, scheduled to make a little over $14 million this year, and that is his cap number, but Deebo Samuel’s cap number this year is almost 29 million,” Graziano said. “Can you pay them both? So far the 49ers are saying yes, but if and when they get a deal done with Brandon Aiyuk, they have to think about the long term with both of them…I think they revisit the idea of maybe trading Deebo Samuel, whether it’s before the season, during the season, or certainly after.”
He also noted that the 49ers have gotten calls about both guys, but they have not been interested up to this point.
Aiyuk recently ramped up the pressure, choosing to sit out the mandatory minicamp and incur fines as a result. Meanwhile the 49ers have given new contracts to WR Jauan Jennings and RB Christian McCaffrey.
Michael Lombardi recently dropped an interesting nugget of information on his GM Shuffle podcast, saying that the Steelers had struck a trade with the 49ers during the draft, but it fell apart late.
That is a pretty credible report, and really the first of its kind that actually links the Steelers to trading for one of the two receivers. So if we know that Pittsburgh has interest, and it seems like the 49ers are preparing to move on from one or the other, then is it just a matter of time before a deal happens?
The 49ers would save $22,001,765 on their salary cap in 2024, and another $17,568,529 in 2025, if they traded Samuel now that we are past June 1, per Over the Cap. As Riddick and Graziano pointed out, there are too many signs pointing to a trade. Now it is just a matter of determining if they want to make the decision this offseason or next.
