49ers news: 3 trade scenarios to land Falcons WR Julio Jones

No. 2: 49ers exchange WR Deebo Samuel for WR Julio Jones

This wouldn’t be popular with San Francisco’s fanbase. But one has to consider the 49ers would have quite the array of pass-catching weapons with Julio Jones in town even if they decided to ship off third-year wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the Falcons as part of a would-be trade deal.

Look at it this way: The Niners would be upgrading Samuel with a seven-time Pro Bowler who, despite his age, is still a massive contributor at this stage of his career and should be for the foreseeable future.

A pass-catching trio of Jones, Brandon Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle would still be awfully formidable, too. And it would likely lessen the total asking price in draft compensation:

Samuel is entering year three of his rookie deal, so the Falcons would be able to absorb his team-friendly cap hit while moving Jones’ numbers with ease.

And while San Francisco would ideally like to keep and develop Samuel, one can’t overlook his recent injury history that limited him to just seven games played last season. It wasn’t just an anomaly of injuries either, as Samuel also dealt with various injury setbacks during his time at South Carolina, too.

If the 49ers aren’t as high on Samuel as many of the fans are, now could be the chance to look for an upgrade while parting ways with a potentially injury-prone player sooner than later.