San Francisco 49ers

No good deed goes unpunished.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel confirmed to ESPN's Adam Schefter he has requested a trade from the team. Schefter reported the Niners have allowed him and his agent to explore any deals.

Granting his wish and trading the 2021 All-Pro before June 1 will be costly for San Francisco since it would trigger a dead money hit of almost $31.6 million for the 2025 season. That would be added to the $16.6 million the team has set aside for players no longer on the roster. Defensive end Arik Armstead ($15.5 million) accounts for the biggest chunk of the total.

Whoever acquires Samuel, meanwhile, will be on the hook for his $17.5 million in salary earnings, though that's all non-guaranteed. Even though the 29-year-old is coming off a lackluster campaign, that's not a massive sum when elite wideouts are averaging $30 million annually.

If the Niners were focused primarily on the salary cap, then holding off a trade until June 2 or later would be the sensible course of action. In that situation, they'd spread his dead money across 2025 ($10.6 million) and 2026 ($20.4 millIon) and actually get $5.2 million in savings.

But general manager John Lynch will presumably want to get something done before the draft so he can immediately utilize the compensation he'll get for the star pass-catcher. This will become a bigger and bigger distraction the longer it carries into the offseason, too, thus raising the likelihood a resolution arrives before ahead of when the 2025 NFL draft starts on April 24.

NFL fans took a break from their Super Bowl LIX preparations on Sunday to discuss the fate of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

Samuel informed ESPN's Adam Schefter on Sunday that the 49ers granted him and agent Tory Dandy permission to seek a trade this offseason.

After requesting a trade during the Niners' season-ending exit meetings, Samuel told Schefter:

"It was a hard conversation to have with [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] because of the relationship that we have. But I have to do what's best. I'm more than thankful for the Niners giving me the opportunity of a lifetime, but now I think it's best that we find another team."

In response to the news, many fans took to X and debated the best landing spot for Samuel should he indeed get traded in the coming months:

Samuel, 29, sports a salary cap hit of $15.825 million in 2025, but he has only one year left on his contract, which could make it easier for receiver-needy teams to justify trading for him even though he is coming off a down year.

The former University of South Carolina standout is best remembered for his dominant 2021 campaign when he was named a Pro Bowler and First Team All-Pro for the first and only time.

Samuel set career highs with 77 receptions for 1,405 yards to go along with six touchdowns, plus he was a dominant force as a runner, rushing for 365 yards and eight scores.

In the three seasons since then, Samuel has missed multiple games due to injury each year, and he has not come close to replicating that level of success.

After finishing with 864 total yards and five touchdowns in 2022, Samuel did bounce back in 2023 with 1,117 total yards and 12 scores.

However, he struggled in 15 games during the 2024 campaign, recording 51 grabs for 670 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for 136 yards and one touchdown.

It is fair to wonder if injuries and age are starting to catch up with Samuel, but there is still a strong argument to be made for him being worth the risk since he is not signed long term.

That fact should ensure that multiple teams are in on Samuel on the trade market, particularly those who believe they may be one offensive weapon away from championship contention.

Deebo Samuel has never played for an NFL team outside of the San Francisco 49ers, but that might change for the 2025 campaign.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Sunday the NFC West team gave the wide receiver permission to seek a trade after Samuel requested one during his exit meeting following the 2024 season.

"It was a hard conversation to have with Kyle (Shanahan) because of the relationship that we have," Samuel said. "But I have to do what's best. I'm more than thankful for the Niners giving me the opportunity of a lifetime, but now I think it's best that we find another team."

This comes after NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported San Francisco was "expected to explore trading" the 2019 second-round pick and that "both sides appear to be at peace with moving on if it goes that way."

Samuel also made headlines in December when he said in a since-deleted social-media post, per Kevin Patra of NFL.com, "Not struggling at all, just not getting the ball!"

He also said, "You read what you read. [I'm] a little frustrated for sure."

Samuel has been with the 49ers since they drafted him in 2019, and he helped lead the team to two Super Bowls during his tenure. However, this past season was a disappointing one, as the team went 6-11 and finished in last place in the division.

He also tallied 51 catches for 670 yards and three touchdowns as his numbers dropped across the board from his 60 catches for 892 yards and seven touchdowns during the 2023 campaign. His career-best season came when he was a Pro Bowler in 2021 with 77 catches for 1,405 yards and six touchdowns in addition to 365 yards and eight scores on the ground as a rusher.

From San Francisco's perspective, it surely would have preferred to see better production since Brandon Aiyuk was limited to just seven games in 2024.

It also might have taken steps toward life after Samuel by signing Aiyuk to an extension and drafting Ricky Pearsall in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft ahead of the most recent campaign.

Yet a potential Samuel trade means another team will have the chance to land an impact receiver who is still just 29 years old. He can impact the game as a pass-catcher or runner and may be motivated to further prove himself with a change of scenery.

The San Francisco 49ers have opened contract negotiations with representatives for quarterback Brock Purdy and are aiming to have a deal completed "soon," according to The Athletic's Dianna Russini.

"This was always the plan," Russini reported. "The Niners have never wavered on Purdy as their franchise quarterback, not after his breakout run, not after leading them to a Super Bowl, and definitely not now after a disappointing 2024 season."

Niners linebacker Fred Warner offered a strong endorsement of Purdy during Super Bowl week, telling Russini the 25-year-old signal-caller shares multiple traits with elite QBs:

In addition to San Francisco going 6-11 and missing the playoffs, Purdy's performance went backwards a bit in 2024. He threw for fewer yards (3,864) and touchdowns (20) than in 2023, and his completion percentage went from 69.4 to 65.9.

Still, Russini's report left little room for doubt as to the Niners' long-term belief in his abilities.

But extending Purdy means he'll go from being the biggest bargain in the NFL to significantly limiting the organization's financial flexibility. The 2023 Pro Bowler is due to earn $5.3 million in the final year of his rookie contract, and Spotrac projects his value at $59.7 million annually.

ESPN's Dan Graziano reported Saturday there's a belief from some around the league that a $55 million salary is more than fair in the present market based on what Purdy has done. Others, however, said the 49ers can play hardball since they could theoretically use the franchise tag on him in 2026 and 2027.

There's some risk with that approach, though, because it could mean San Francisco winds up paying just as much money, if not more, overall than it would by simply giving him an extension now.

The Dallas Cowboys let Dak Prescott play out the 2020 season on the franchise tag, so he got $31.4 million guaranteed for that season before hitting the market all over again. The Cowboys handed him a four-year, $160 million extension,

Years before that, the Washington Commanders had Kirk Cousins on the franchise tag for 2016 and 2017, and that created a situation where he was basically too expensive to re-sign in 2018.

The other incentive for getting a multiyear extension with Purdy done now instead of next offseason is that his salary will look less and less burdensome as more quarterbacks get paid.

Josh Allen became the second-highest-paid QB when he got an extension averaging $43 million annually in 2021. Now, that figure is only good enough to put him 14th at the position.

A $55 million payout to Purdy every season wouldn't look too bad in a few years.

The San Francisco 49ers "are expected to explore trading" wide receiver Deebo Samuel, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

"While it's not a certainty that Samuel is done in San Francisco, it's enough of a possibility that both sides appear to be at peace with moving on if it goes that way," Rapoport said.

The 2021 All-Pro watched his production go backward this season. He caught 51 passes for 670 yards and three touchdowns in 15 appearances.

His usage was a point of contention for Samuel. In a since-deleted post on X in December, he said he was "not struggling at all just not getting the ball!!!!!!!" While the 29-year-old took down the message, he didn't walk back from the sentiment when addressing it publicly.

"You read what you read. [I'm] a little frustrated for sure," he told reporters on Dec. 10.

Should Samuel get traded, the writing was on the wall based on San Francisco's offseason business last year. The team used a first-round pick on Ricky Pearsall and then signed Brandon Aiyuk to a $120 million extension.

Although Aiyuk is recovering from ACL and MCL tears that ended his season after seven games, it looks like the organization is prepared to move forward with he and Pearsall as the top two options in the passing attack.

One complication in trading Samuel is that the Niners are incentivized to wait well past the draft to actually make the move.

Any trade before June 1 will put $31 million in dead money on the books and cost San Francisco $15.2 million against the salary cap. By executing the deal on June 2 or later, the team would spread the dead money hit across 2025 ($10.6 million) and 2026 ($20.4 million) while saving $5.2 million toward the cap.

A resolution to this situation could be a few months away.

San Francisco 49ers left tackle Trent Williams, who has missed his team's last four games with an ankle injury, may sit the remainder of the season.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan delivered that news to reporters on Wednesday:

The 11-time Pro Bowler has been a first-team All-Pro each of the past three seasons.

Obviously, missing Williams for any amount of time is a tremendous loss given his elite play. Unfortunately, he's just another in a long line of key injuries for the defending NFC champions.

Players out for the season include wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, interior offensive lineman Jon Feliciano, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and running back Christian McCaffrey.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw just recently debuted in 2024 after suffering a torn Achilles during last February's Super Bowl. Safety Talanoa Hufanga has only played four games after landing on injured reserve with a right wrist ailment. Edge-rusher Nick Bosa also missed three games with hip/oblique injuries.

And now Williams appears done in what's become a lost year for the 6-8 49ers, who currently sit last in the NFC West. The team currently has less than a one percent chance to make the playoffs, per NFL.com. So it doesn't make much sense for Williams to play hurt or risk re-injury at this juncture.

Without Williams, the 49ers have turned to Jaylon Moore at left tackle. Moore has served as Williams' backup over the past four seasons. Pro Football Focus ranks him 17th among 132 offensive tackles, and he hasn't given up a sack in 238 offensive snaps.

As for the 49ers, they'll visit the Miami Dolphins on Sunday before closing out the season with a home game against the Detroit Lions and a road matchup versus the Arizona Cardinals.

As Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers have both indicated they want to get a contract extension done quickly this offseason, the eventual deal that he gets may not be as expensive as once thought.

Per ESPN's Dan Graziano, there's a belief among some people around the NFL that Purdy's extension will "likely" be structured similarly to Daniel Jones' contract with the New York Giants.

Jones signed a four-year, $160 million deal with the Giants in March 2023 that included $92 million in total guarantees. Purdy's deal would be for more money to account for inflation.

Graziano's prediction is Purdy will end up signing a four-year, $196 million extension with $112 million guaranteed. The $49 million average annual salary would rank 10th among all current quarterback contracts, putting him between Jalen Hurts ($51 million) and Kyler Murray ($46.1 million).

While that's not an insignificant figure for a team to take on, it would represent a discount compared to what some previous projections had for Purdy.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero said on The Rich Eisen Show (h/t David Bonilla of 49ersWebZone.com) in December that Purdy could pursue "top of the quarterback market" money, which is currently at $60 million for Dak Prescott.

Speaking to reporters after the 49ers' season ended, Purdy said he wants to get an extension "done quick" so that both sides can focus all of their attention on a full offseason program.

Even though the 49ers have a history of dragging out negotiations with their star players, getting a deal done with Purdy early would allow them to know exactly how much wiggle room they have to make any potential additions in free agency.

Purdy did take a step back this season compared to 2023, in no small part because injuries decimated the 49ers roster. He still had a solid year with 3,864 passing yards and 20 touchdowns in 15 starts. His 67.9 QBR ranked seventh out of 32 qualified quarterbacks.

The 49ers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020 with a 6-11 record. They had won at least 10 games and reached the NFC Championship Game in each of the previous three seasons.

Robert Saleh is heading back to San Francisco.

Saleh and the San Francisco 49ers have agreed to a contract for him to return as the team's defensive coordinator, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

The news comes after Matt Barrows, Michael Silver and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic reported Thursday that Saleh is "expected" to return to the Niners as the defensive coordinator, a position he held between the 2017-20 seasons.

That came in the wake of Liam Coen emerging as the favorite to land the head-coaching gig in Jacksonville. Saleh interviewed for that position last week and was scheduled to have a second interview planned for this week, but it appears as though the Jags will be going with Coen.

Coen has since been hired as the Jags head coach.

Saleh, 45, spent the past four seasons as the head coach of the New York Jets, going 20-36, though he was saddled with poor quarterback play in his first three seasons and was fired just five games into the 2024 season when he finally had a healthy Aaron Rodgers (the Jets went 3-9 with Jeff Ulbrich as the interim head coach).

As a defensive coordinator or head coach, his defenses have finished top-10 in yards allowed five times, top-10 in points allowed twice and top-10 in takeaways twice.

The Niners, meanwhile, were saddled with injuries on both sides of the ball in 2024 but finished 29th in points allowed (25.6 PPG) and eighth in yards allowed (317.4 YPG).

After a disappointing 6-11 season, the Niners made a number of changes to the coaching staff under Kyle Shanahan, including demoting defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen. They may keep him in San Francisco in a different role, however.

"Still trying to hope to keep him on board in another capacity because he's a guy I don't want to lose," Shanahan told reporters after the demotion was announced. "But just where we're at, really, as a team, where I think we need to go, there's a lot of big decisions ahead for us."

The Niners have not been nearly as formidable defensively in recent seasons as they were under Saleh and his replacement, DeMeco Ryans, who spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator (2021-22) before becoming the head coach of the Houston Texans.

Veteran linebacker Fred Warner told reporters after the season that some of that responsibility falls on the players.

"The easy thing right now is everybody is going to put the blame on [Sorensen] for how the defense has played and when you're the guy at the helm, that's what happens," he said. "You're going to take the brunt of that but it's everybody. Everybody has got to take a look in the mirror. I've got to take a look in the mirror. ... I think Nick has done a great job all season. As players when we have to execute and play the game; we didn't him any favors."

Saleh will be hoping they do him a few favors next season in his return to the team.

Former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh has a contract offer from the San Francisco 49ers to become the NFL's highest-paid defensive coordinator, per The Athletic's Matt Barrows.

That news was reported Friday on the latest edition of The TK Show with Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard (3:30 mark).

"I think it's become obvious now that it's Saleh or bust really, because they haven't done much work with anybody else to this point," Barrows said.

"And I've already heard that they've told Saleh, you know, 'We will make you the highest-paid defensive coordinator in all the land if you sign with us.' And now it's just a matter of waiting for Saleh."

Barrows noted that Saleh is getting "all sorts of head coaching attention," though, so it's certainly possible he could reject that opportunity if he gets a head coaching offer.

Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic reported that there's "real buzz" Saleh lands the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coaching job. Saleh interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The Dallas Cowboys plan to interview Saleh on Monday, per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports.

So there's plenty of buzz connecting Saleh to three of the six open NFL head coaching jobs out there. However, there's plenty of competition for Saleh at all three of those gigs.

In Dallas, Pro Football Hall of Famer, ex-Cowboys star and current Colorado head coach Deion Sanders could be the pick. NFL insider Ed Werder reported Thursday that he was told Sanders "would almost certainly accept" the position, presuming Cowboys owner Jerry Jones offers it.

In Jacksonville and Las Vegas, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, widely considered one of the top (if not the top) head coaching candidates, could be a pick.

The Raiders have also been linked with Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen, Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, per ESPN's Paul Gutierrez.

So Saleh could be finding himself out of a head coaching job in this cycle. However, it's clear he'd have a home back in San Francisco, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2017-2020 before joining the Jets in 2021.

Barrows reiterated, too, that the 49ers have made a "strong" and "top-of-the-market" offer to Saleh, so it doesn't appear that he'll be out of a job for long.