49ers news: What’s next for Deebo Samuel after NFL Draft?

The 49ers elected not to move Deebo Samuel in the middle of the NFL Draft, but reportedly he still wants a trade, meaning things haven’t cleaned up at all yet.

San Francisco 49ers fans understandably watched Round 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft with plenty of anticipation despite the Niners not actually entering the first night with a pick.

No, the reason those fans were watching was to see if general manager John Lynch would finally cave to the previous request from All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel to finally trade him amid contract-extension disputes.

Reportedly, San Francisco did receive offers, one from the New York Jets (a hot-spot suggestion for Samuel) that included the No. 10 overall pick in the draft with a mid-round pick swap.

Lynch didn’t budge. And the fanbase probably breathed a sigh of relief once Gang Green made its actual draft selection in that spot.

Yet the story didn’t simply go away right then and there.

According to a post-draft report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler (h/t Bleacher Report), Samuel still wants a trade and understands the situation could “drag out for a while”:

Back to square one, apparently.

Is Deebo Samuel going to hold out from 49ers offseason activities?

Samuel already failed to show up for the first stage of team activities this offseason, and it sure doesn’t seem likely he’ll report to minicamps and organized team activities later this spring.

While detrimental, that’s not the worst situation to be in. Where it’ll actually start counting is in training camp.

As broken down by CBS Sports’ Joel Corry, a former NFL agent, players who are still on their rookie contracts can be fined $40,000 per day if they’re absent from training camp practices. Per Corry, these fines aren’t optional, as the current collective bargaining agreement requires it, meaning the 49ers can’t “play nice” and offer a good-faith gesture of not actually fining him.

Should Samuel end up missing preseason games, it’d cost him even more.

Now, Samuel could opt to follow the same path Pittsburgh Steelers EDGE T.J. Watt pursued a year ago, something of a “hold-in” where he physically attended camp but did not partake in any on-field activities, thereby avoiding fines in a technicality sort of way.

Will 49ers finally cave and trade Deebo Samuel?

The 2022 NFL Draft marked the last best chance the Niners had to move Samuel for what could have been a lucrative return. With that in the rearview mirror, the actual likelihood of Samuel being moved diminishes greatly.

But it doesn’t go away entirely.

The uncertainty of where draft picks wind up being seeded in 2023 makes next year’s selections less valuable. As San Francisco itself showed from 2018 to 2019, any team can go from a top-three selection to picking at the very end of Round 1 the following year.

Read More: Richard Sherman on Deebo Samuel standoff: ‘It’s getting silly’

However, if another team winds up making some sort of can’t-refuse trade offer to the 49ers for Samuel, one likely including multiple first-round picks with some additional ones thrown in for good measure, the Niners may bite.

Especially if this standoff continues.

However, San Francisco’s best interest is to figure out a way to mitigate the situation, whatever that might be. Samuel is still under contract for 2022, and the 49ers could feasibly apply the franchise tag a year later, too. But a fully disgruntled player causing a distraction is the last thing the Niners want to entertain.

In short, this saga didn’t come to an end just because the NFL Draft is over.