On Friday, Deebo Samuel was in Las Vegas for day two of the 2022 NFL Draft. He was wearing a red baseball hat, which seems fitting because the San Francisco 49ers would like to make sure he keeps wearing that color. The team made strides in accomplishing that goal by not trading the wide receiver during the first round of the draft on Thursday night.
There were offers, but head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted that the 49ers were "not even close" to accepting an offer for their do-it-all star player. Despite Samuel requesting a trade, the team deems him too valuable to give up.
Because the 49ers didn't own a first-round pick, reporters didn't have an opportunity to ask general manager John Lynch about the team passing on trading Samuel. Lynch did make himself available on Friday night, though.
"We were convicted that Deebo is a tremendous fit for this team," general manager John Lynch told NBC Sports Bay Area. "... We listened, but nothing moved us. It was going to take something spectacular because I think he's a spectacular player. I know he is. We've seen that.
"There is projection in the draft, and when you know what you have in a guy ... it's hard to move on from that. And so I didn't see that happening, and it didn't happen. So we set out to try to build a team, along with Deebo, that can compete for the whole deal, and we're very pleased after our day one—the rest of the league's day two."
Where do the 49ers and Samuel go from here? Hopefully, toward working together to mend their relationship, address some of the obstacles, and sign the dynamic wideout to a contract extension.
"I think it always starts with communication," Lynch said. "So, we'll get through this draft and focus on continuing to build a team. And that will happen in due time. We're confident with our building. We've got a great foundation of a relationship, and we just need to get back to that, and I'm confident we can."
Moments earlier, Shanahan was very open in explaining why he's optimistic that the 49ers can work things out with Samuel.
"We've been with him here for three years," Shanahan said. "I think we know him pretty well. He knows us pretty well. Yeah, things haven't been the best over the last couple of months through outside perception, but I see that happen a lot in this league, especially in contract situations. You try not to overreact one way or another on it. You try to be patient with it because emotions can get high with people, especially when you care about people."
