Camila Sosa
The drama between Deebo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers seems to have come to an end. After extensive negotiations to extend the wide receiver’s contract, Deebo Samuel appears to have made the decision to leave the organization, or so it was announced by Jeff Darlington, who commented that the player revealed his desire to leave the team for the upcoming NFL season after failing to reach an agreement.
The market for wide receivers this season is quite busy and many teams want to acquire a player at this position, so below we will go through some possible candidates to host Deebo Samuel for these next few years.
1.- New York Jets
When talking about a wide receiver available on the market, the first thing that comes to mind is the New York Jets. Since the offseason began, the team has shown interest in acquiring a big-name player for that position, but the team has failed miserably so far in their attempts to reinforce with someone of that caliber.
The organization made an effort to acquire Tyreek Hill after the Kansas City Chiefs made him available for a trade, but Hill ended up choosing the Miami Dolphins over the Jets, leaving the team with a bad taste in the mouth. Since then, the franchise has been keeping an eye on what happens not only with Deebo Samuel, but also with other wide receivers currently going through contract issues such as A.J. Brown and DK Metcalf.
Deebo Samuel would not look unfavorably on coming to the Jets, as he would be reunited with Mike LaFleur, who is the team’s offensive coordinator and was the 49ers’ passing coordinator when San Francisco selected Samuel in the draft in 2019.
2.- Kansas City Chiefs
Speaking of Tyreek Hill, the Kansas City Chiefs are still looking for a quality replacement for the hole left by their star receiver, and the availability of Deebo Samuel will surely cause the organization to keep an eye on what’s happening in San Francisco. The Chiefs have already reinforced at this position with names like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Valdes-Scantling, but one more acquisition wouldn’t hurt to further enhance the aerial potential that Patrick Mahomes can provide.
However, Kansas City did not let Tyreek Hill go for the sake of it, but because of his high salary demands. Considering that Deebo Samuel is leaving the 49ers for the same reason, it doesn’t seem to make much sense that they would make a push for him, but with their direct rivals bolstering themselves with big-name players like Davante Adams (Raiders), Russell Wilson (Broncos) and Khalil Mack (Chargers), an attempt to acquire Samuel would not go amiss in order to continue to build in a division that is sure to be highly competitive.
3.- Green Bay Packers
Aaron Rodgers has not been entirely happy in recent seasons in Green Bay, and has even threatened with retirement or leaving the team. However, the quarterback signed a three-year contract extension in March, but losing his top receiver, Davante Adams, will surely have been a blow to both him and the organization. This is worsened by the fact that another player in the same position, Márquez Valdes-Scantling, also left from the north for Kansas.
Therefore, acquiring Deebo Samuel seems like a great idea for both the Packers and the player. The franchise would bolster the position with a high-level player, while the wide receiver would continue to play for an organization that struggles season after season to take all the honors. From that perspective, this would be the ideal situation, but the same problem that exists with Kansas is also present in these negotiations for Deebo Samuel: the Packers did not want to meet Davante Adams’ demands and let him go, and they have two first-round picks in the upcoming draft, so they have options to choose from.
4.- New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints made a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this month that saw the team keep a second first-round pick for the upcoming draft. The deal they made didn’t seem to make much sense as they let go of several pieces in return, but now with Deebo Samuel looking for a team, they could make that extra pick count in a possible trade with the 49ers.
The point is that the Saints already have a very high quality wide receiver in Michael Thomas… or at least in theory. No one doubts Thomas’ abilities, but the reality is that the player is very prone to injury and was even unable to play in all of 2021, so adding quality depth at the position with the acquisition of Deebo Samuel would be more than welcome as the Saints look to retake dominance in the NFC South division after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cut short their streak of four consecutive titles in 2021.
