NFL Trade Rumors: Analyst claims Deebo Samuel could team up with Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes
Deebo Samuel has asked for a trade just weeks after Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes both lost their top wide receivers. Since news broke about the wide receiver's trade request, plenty of fans have speculated as to where the wide receiver could end up.
However, one NFL analyst has linked him to two perennial Super Bowl contenders. Speaking on Fox Sports' Speak for Yourself, Marcellus Wiley said the wide receiver could join either Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers or Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Here's what he said:
"All I'm saying is he needs top dollar. He needs to go get his money and I respect it but remember why he's not top dog. Let's be real. Deebo Samuel is running this calculation. I'm a hybrid type of receiver. I'm a very physical receiver or I'm a very finesse running back, whatever you want to call him, he's a hybrid."
He continued, explaining why Samuel doesn't want to continue to have a running back role:
"And in that respect, he knows the last thing I need to do is be aging out here like a running back because you know how those running backs age. They don't get their contracts, they don't get their money, they don't live up to it."
He went on to say that the wide receiver may be strongly interested in Kansas City or Green Bay:
"Look what they're doing with Davante Adams and the reports are he may go to Kansas City, Patrick Mahomes. He may go to Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers.... But I swear, what's leading this charge if he were in Green Bay? Think about if you were in Green Bay, you lose your offensive coordinator. But you still got Aaron Rodgers. Davante Adams changes that story a little bit."
Some speculation that @Chiefs are interested in @49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel because of draft capital. A team source says a move for Samuel — or DK Metcalf, A.J. Brown or Terry McLaurin — isn’t likely. Told all those options “are probably all long shots at this point.”
He returned to Samuel's line of thinking later on, saying that Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo are just too unstable to depend on in a contract year:
"You don't step between the white lines that quarterback does. I think there's some kind of mix and balancing that going on between, might we do one thing, Jimmy G surgery another thing. Trey Lance not ready, or is ready is another thing and I just think it's just too much in jeopardy for him to risk."
Deebo Samuel's path leading to a potential move to join Rodgers or Mahomes
If it seems like Deebo Samuel came out of nowhere in 2021, it is because he essentially did. Drafted in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, the wide receiver had some quiet years from a national standpoint in 2019 and 2020.
In his rookie season, the wide receiver caught 57 passes for 802 yards and three touchdowns. While this gave 49ers fans optimism about the wide receiver, it failed to put him on the map in the way 2021 did. That said, hopes were high for him in 2020. However, according to Pro Football Reference, he played in only seven games that season.
According to Draft Sharks, due to the hamstring injury he suffered that year, the wide receiver's durability remains his biggest question mark. However, he did all he could to overcome something of a slow start in 2021. In that season, he caught 77 passes for 1405 yards and six touchdowns, getting on the radar of every team in the NFL.
Will Samuel find a new team or settle with the San Francisco 49ers? In a wild offseason, any outcome is plausible.