Deebo Samuel openly acknowledges not being in the best shape last season

The San Francisco 49ers honored Deebo Samuel's request to be traded by sending him to the Washington Commanders. They are taking on $31.5 million in dead money to simply move on and to finally remove what appears to be a lingering headache dating back to contract negotiations after his All-Pro season in 2021.

Last season, Samuel missed two games as he battled pneumonia and injuries. He posted the lowest yards from scrimmage of his career in a season where he played more than 10 games (806), and he just generally didn't look as explosive. His conditioning had been a thing in the past, to the point Samuel and Kyle Shanahan both acknowledged the wide receiver would send the head coach photos during the 2023 offseason to show what kind of shape he was in.

Tim Kawakami of SF Standard previously reported Samuel was 20 pounds overweight at times last season. Matt Barrows of The Athletic backed up the idea of Samuel being overweight, too, during a more recent appearance on Kawakami's podcast:

I’m not going to say the number, but I asked what was Deebo’s high point weight wise last season and it meshes with what you said a couple of weeks ago. It got really high and there may have been reasons for that. Not able to work out because of pneumonia. Not able to work out because of injuries. But that’s a concern. I think the 49ers had that concern the minute he showed up in Santa Clara in 2019 and it never fully went away.

Deebo Samuel admits he was overweight last season

Back at the 2019 NFL Combine, Samuel weighed in at 214 pounds. Though the accuracy of those listings can be easy to question sometimes, the 49ers have officially listed him at 215 pounds.

On Monday, Samuel went to social media to say there's no bad blood for him toward Shanahan or 49ers general manager John Lynch after being traded.

In response to what Barrows said on Kawakami's podcast, Samuel acknowledged exactly what he weighed in at last season:

Samuel not being able to work out as hard due to injuries and illness is understandable, and not surprising. The exact amount he was overweight over the course of last season is not even overly important in the grand scheme of things.

However, openly acknowledging he was 10 pounds over his listed weight might mean he indeed was 20 pounds overweight at some point.

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