One Hall of Fame wide receiver hopes the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Deebo Samuel stay together for a long time. It's a marriage that will be successful for both team and player. The 49ers would benefit from keeping their explosive and dynamic young star, an offensive asset in the future for second-year quarterback Trey Lance. Samuel would benefit from staying with Kyle Shanahan, the creative offensive mind who has brought out the best in the receiver.
Samuel is eligible for a contract extension. While it's only April, there has been a lot of chatter surrounding the situation. Samuel scrubbing the 49ers off his Instagram account has ignited that chatter. Is that just a negotiating tactic, or is there some discord between the two sides?
Samuel has watched as other NFL wide receivers, like Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill, have cashed in this offseason while moving to new teams. Samuel is under contract for one more season and might be wondering what another team might pay him if the 49ers aren't willing to back in the Brinks truck.
Of course, the argument on the 49ers' side is that Samuel is not those other two guys. Adams has produced three 1,000-plus-yard seasons, including a career-high 1,553 receiving yards in 2021, in the past four years. He was just three yards shy of 1,000 in 2019. Hill has produced 1,000-plus-yard seasons in four of the past five years. Their production has been consistent.
Samuel has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards once in his three NFL seasons. It happened to be this past season when he racked up 1,405 receiving yards. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Samuel has 1,770 total yards and 14 total touchdowns, producing 365 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground as a running back.
His 2021 campaign was impressive, but it was just one season. That may be the argument.
Irvin believes Samuel's camp has an argument of its own to push back against the lack of consistency. It's the lack of an elite quarterback, something Adams and Hill had in Green Bay and Kansas City. Samuel had Jimmy Garoppolo. While the fourth-year wideout produced his 2021 numbers (mostly) with Garoppolo at quarterback, Irvin argues that he produced despite having Garoppolo as his quarterback.
"Well, the pushback is he didn't do what those guys have done," Irvin said this week on The Michael Irvin Podcast. "He didn't put up the numbers like those guys in the receiving department. If I'm his agent, what I'm saying to everybody, 'Davante Adams had Aaron Rodgers. Tyreek Hill had Patrick Mahomes.' I had the dude you all are trying to get rid of (Garoppolo), and I still did what I did.
"I had a dude that you all were trying to get rid of right now. I did this with him. So go get me one of these. Go do your job and get me one of these, and I'll do my job and give you these. Go get me one of these Aaron Rodgers, one of these Patrick Mahomes, and watch me give you a Davante Adams and a Tyreek Hill. That's his argument, and it sounds good to me."
Maybe Lance can be that guy. The 49ers certainly believed so last year, trading a haul of draft picks to move up and select him at No. 3 overall. The 21-year-old quarterback is expected to start Week 1 of the 2022 season. Getting rid of the team's best playmaker doesn't sound like a smart development plan for the young passer.
You can listen to Irvin discuss Samuel in the podcast's opening below.
