Deebo Samuel

San Francisco 49ers star receiver Deebo Samuel was the subject of trade rumors earlier this offseason, but he didn't give them too much attention.

"Yeah, I heard it," Samuel said of the speculation that the 49ers were accepting trade calls for him prior to the NFL draft, per The Athletic's Tim Kawakami. "Had a conversation with my agent about it. They were going back and forth with it, whoever it was. It was a thing at first. But gonna move past it. We're here, and we're here to get better."

Samuel is facing an uncertain future in San Francisco, as the team has the option to release him from his contract after the 2024 season. Kawakami noted that if Samuel "repeats his up-and-down 2023 performance this season, he will likely be traded or released."

The 28-year-old played 15 games last season and recorded 60 catches for 892 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 225 rushing yards and five more scores. He has yet to return to the level of production he had in 2021, when he was named first-team All-Pro after finishing with 1,405 receiving yards and six touchdowns in addition to 365 yards and eight scores on the ground.

Kawakami pointed out that if Samuel has a bounce-back year in 2024, he "will make a ton of money in 2025, either from the 49ers or somebody else."

For now, Samuel appears committed to San Francisco, as he has been present for the entirety of OTAs so far.

"I mean, at the end of the day, contract was signed," Samuel said. "And I know what I signed up for. We're just focused on this year."

Not everyone is sold on the San Francisco 49ers using a first-round pick on Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler spoke to one NFC exec who called the pick "a bit of a reach."

"He can be a nice No. 2 or No. 3 receiver, a good player, but that was a bit of a reach, in my opinion," the personnel evaluator said.

Pearsall split his collegiate career at Arizona State and Florida, emerging as a versatile threat in his final season in Gainsville. He recorded 65 receptions for 965 yards and four touchdowns as a senior and then put on a stellar athletic performance at the 2024 NFL combine to move up draft boards.

Still, even Pearsall was surprised to hear his name in the first round.

"I was definitely shocked to see San Francisco pop up on my phone and I picked it up," Pearsall told reporters last month. "I think the only time I actually met with them was during the Senior Bowl when you're kind of doing like the little speed dating meetings. So that's really the only time I really got to talk to them.

"But as far as that, I didn't really have too much conversation and contact with them. My agent was trying to contact them leading up, obviously, to the Draft Day. But as far as serious interest, I don't think that I was aware of this, no."

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported most teams pegged Pearsall as a second-round pick.

The 49ers likely see Pearsall as a long-term replacement to either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel, who were both subject to trade rumors around the draft. Aiyuk is set to play out the fifth-year option of his rookie contract in 2024, while Samuel has no guaranteed salary remaining on his deal beyond next season.

San Francisco will have to begin trimming payroll sooner than later with a long-term contract for quarterback Brock Purdy in the offing. Grabbing Pearsall and installing him into the system for a year before shedding one of Samuel or Aiyuk makes some sense.

We'll just have to see whether the front office made the right call on which receiver to take.

The San Francisco 49ers discussed trading wide receiver Deebo Samuel before making the decision not to move him two hours before the second day of the 2024 NFL Draft, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported.

The day before those trade talks, the 49ers drafted Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall with their pick at No. 31 overall in the first round.

After apparently deciding to keep Samuel, San Francisco added another wide receiver by selecting Arizona's Jacob Cowing in the fourth round.

The Athletic's Dianna Russini previously reported that the 49ers held talks before the start of the draft about dealing Samuel or fellow star receiver Brandon Aiyuk in hopes of moving up in the first round.

Fowler's report comes days after 49ers general manager John Lynch confirmed on The Pat McAfee Show that San Francisco had listened to trade offers on Samuel and Aiyuk.

"During the course of drafts and offseasons, do conversations happen? Absolutely, they do," Lynch said. "We're past that now. We're thrilled to add to that group."

Samuel, a 2021 All-Pro, recorded 60 catches for 892 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 15 regular-season starts.

He added 13 catches for 146 yards in three playoff games to help the 49ers reach Super Bowl LVIII.

Samuel has two seasons remaining on the three-year extension he signed with the 49ers in 2022. He is set to cost $28.6 million against the cap for the 2024 season, according to Spotrac.

Astute fantasy managers looking to get an early start on planning their drafts will be interested to know that Malachi Corley wasted no time making an impression on New York Jets coaches during the team's first rookie minicamp practice on Friday.

On the Saturday morning edition of SportsCenter, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler noted Corley is generating a lot of strong reviews already:

"There's a lot of buzz internally about this sort of do-it-all option. There's some comparisons from scouts I've heard, Deebo Samuel a little bit. One called him 'rugged.' That's the kind of player they needed last year, somebody that can get you an unexpected 20 or 30 yards, so this is somebody who could if not start, then get significant snaps for them right away. Very excited about him."

Deebo Samuel was a popular player comparison for Corley through the pre-draft process. Connor Livesay of The 33rd Team wrote the former Western Kentucky standout possesses "contact balance and the violence he runs with allow him to easily run through tackle attempts in 1-on-1 opportunities on the outside."

Samuel measured in at 5'11" and 214 pounds at the 2019 NFL scouting combine. He ran the 40 in 4.48 seconds and shuttle in 4.14 seconds. Corley was 5'11" and 215 pounds at the combine this year.

In his pre-draft scouting report for B/R, Derrik Klassen noted Corley "sports a short, thick build that makes him look more like a running back than anything else."

The Jets are looking for a No. 3 receiver to emerge this season. They already have Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams as their top two pass-catching options. Williams is coming off a torn ACL, so he may not be ready to hit the ground running when the season begins.

If there is a reason to be concerned about Corley's impact this season, it's because Aaron Rodgers is notoriously particular about what he wants from his receivers and won't look their way if they don't do it.

From a pure upside perspective, though, Corley could end up emerging a reliable big-play option for a Jets team that should have much better offensive production in 2024 as long as Rodgers stays healthy.

Boxer Devin Haney ripped San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel in a post on X on Friday morning after Samuel seemingly posted about Haney's recent loss to Ryan Garcia.

On Thursday afternoon, Samuel made a post that didn't specifically mention either Haney or Garcia, but he seemed to be referring to their fight.

Samuel posted that after ESPN's Mike Coppinger reported Garcia tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance ostarine one day before his majority-decision win over Haney on April 20.

In response to Samuel's post, Haney wrote: "[Expletive] like u can't fight a lick. A [expletive] would real life punch on you in real life."

Haney entered his fight against Garcia with a perfect career record of 31-0, and he was the reigning WBC super lightweight champion.

The title was supposed to be on the line, but Garcia weighed in more than three pounds over the agreed-upon weight. Even so, the two sides struck an agreement to make the fight happen, but the title was not up for grabs.

Haney was a massive favorite to beat Garcia and remain undefeated, but Garcia shockingly knocked him down three times. One judge ruled the fight a draw, but the other two ruled in favor of Garcia, giving him the biggest victory of his career.

Per Coppinger, Garcia has 10 days to request that his B-sample gets tested. If that B-sample also comes back positive, his win is in line to be overturned.

On Wednesday night, Garcia posted a video on X in which he denied that he had taken a banned substance (Some language NSFW):

Garcia said he has never taken a steroid, and he questioned why the positive test was not announced until after the fight.

Samuel seemingly belongs to the camp that believes the fight result would have been the same regardless of whether Garcia took PEDs. That clearly drew the ire of Haney.

There has been no shortage of rumors surrounding San Francisco 49ers wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk this offseason, but general manager John Lynch doesn't sound like someone who's anxious about losing either of them.

"I love our roster," he said during a Thursday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. "... I'm doing everything in my power to keep our roster together."

He specifically highlighted how San Francisco takes pride in the strides both receivers have made since the 49ers drafted them.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported before the NFL draft that San Francisco discussed trading Aiyuk and Samuel as it looked to potentially move up in the first round. Even after that didn't happen, further updates suggested they could still be moved in the future:

Aiyuk is under contract for just one more season, while Samuel is signed for the next two years.

The noise with Aiyuk in particular reached a point that his agent, Ryan Williams, had to deny a rumor that he requested a trade. Still, the wide receiver had quite the response to previous comments from Lynch suggesting the team was trying to work something out:

San Francisco also drafted Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall in the first round and Arizona wide receiver Jacob Cowing in the fourth round.

For now, both Samuel and Aiyuk remain on the roster and will be important pieces of the team's attempt to reach the NFC Championship Game for the fourth consecutive season if that status doesn't change.