The 49ers could’ve been in a different situation financially with the lack of a certain move.
For San Francisco 49ers fans, Super Bowl Sunday started in an unexpected way, as several reports surfaced that wide receiver Deebo Samuel had requested a trade from the franchise, which the team is expected to grant.
Samuel, a 29-year-old receiver, had posted some of the worst numbers of his career in 2024 as his usage continued to decline, despite the 49ers not having No. 1 receiver Brandon Aiyuk for much of the season.
With the team extending Aiyuk and drafting Ricky Pearsall in the first round last offseason, many foreshadowed this moment, as there just aren’t enough touches in the receiver room for Samuel, whose production has continued to fizzle since his All-Pro campaign in 2021.
However, there was one questionable move the 49ers made last September that altered some of the thinking around Samuel’s future: restructuring his contract.
Entering the offseason, the 49ers sought to restructure a number of deals to create cap space, altering the contracts of tight end George Kittle, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, and linebacker Fred Warner.
They also ended up restructuring defensive tackle Maliek Collins, while extending the contracts of Aiyuk and left tackle Trent Williams, leaving them with significant cap space to roll over to 2025.
However, just a week before the season started, San Francisco created an additional $16.4 million in cap space by restructuring Samuel’s contract and lowering his cap hit from $28.6 million to $12.2 million. In addition, they lowered the wideout’s cap hit from $24.2 million to $15.8 million for the 2025 season, which was the final year of Samuel’s contract.
To do so, the team added two additional void years to Samuel’s deal, creating a void charge of $20.8 million in 2026 when Samuel was expected to hit free agency.
Now, why was this move questionable? Yes, it added short-term salary cap space for the 49ers, which will now be used to carry over into the upcoming league year.
But, it made a very tradeable contract almost entirely impossible to trade this offseason, which was when Samuel was widely expected to be moved.
Currently, Samuel would incur a dead cap charge of $31 million if he were to be traded or released before June 1st. On his previous deal, where Samuel was slated to have a cap hit of $24.2 million in 2025, that dead cap charge would’ve been just $15.1 million, making it much more feasible to move on from him via trade and absorb the cap hit in one offseason.
Instead, while the 49ers aren’t technically losing money, they’ll likely be forced to release Samuel with a post-June 1st designation, which will cause the team to eat a dead cap charge of $10.75 million in 2025 and a $20.8 million dead cap charge in 2026.
In order to get out of Samuel’s contract and best position the team for the future, it would’ve been much easier to get off his hefty cap hit in one offseason, which would’ve been more ideal as other teams in the NFL have sought out to do in recent offseasons.
That would’ve also opened up the possibility for a trade, which could’ve netted San Francisco something like an additional third-round pick in the upcoming draft. Instead, they’ll likely need to release Samuel with a post-June 1st designation this offseason, having to eat dead cap both this and next year.