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49ers trade Deebo Samuel to Commanders

Matt Hanifan / NFL / March 1, 2025

49ers trade Deebo Samuel to Commanders

The San Francisco 49ers have traded Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders for a fifth-round pick, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport first reported Saturday.

🚨 🚨 🚨

The #49ers are trading star WR Deebo Samuel to the #Commanders for draft pick compensation, sources say.

Samuel, due $21.7M this year, now heads to join former SF exec Adam Peters and play with QB Jayden Daniels, who gets another weapon. pic.twitter.com/h9Ku5U6uX1
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 1, 2025

The deal cannot be made official until March 12, the first day of the new year.

The San Francisco 49ers are accruing a $31.0 million dead cap hit by trading Samuel before June 1, losing over $15 million in cap space. For comparison, their cap hit if he was traded post-June 1 would’ve been $10.8 million, saving $5.1 million, according to Over The Cap.

According to Spotrac, Samuel will have just one more season on the books for $17.5 million.

San Francisco has agreed to trade WR Deebo Samuel to Washington in exchange for a 2025 5th Rd pick. #Commanders Acquire
1 yr, $17.5M (non-guaranteed)#49ers Dead Cap
$31,020,600

The Niners will lose $15.1M of cap space per this trade, which won’t become official until after…
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 2, 2025

A fifth-round pick for Samuel is not a dire cost for the Commanders, who will still have six picks (three Day 3) in the 2025 NFL Draft next month.

Washington Commanders draft picks after the Deebo Samuel trade:

1-29
2-61
3-79
6-207
7-238
7-250

If they don’t add any picks before the draft, they’d be a strong candidate to trade down out of the first.
— Sam Fortier (@Sam4TR) March 2, 2025

However, Samuel, 29, has accumulated plenty of tread on his tires over his six-year career. Wide receivers at his age with that much wear-and-tear–nearly 6,000 yards of total offense–tend to break down at this stage of their careers.

That’s not to say that Samuel still isn’t remarkably talented and could operate as a swiss army knife in Kliff Kingsbury‘s offense–assuming he stays. Dyami Brown is a free agent, so Samuel will effectively operate as the WR2 behind Terry McLaurin. Retaining Brown, who had a breakout end to 2025, or drafting another pass catcher could ease even more pressure off Samuel to produce.

It’s a low-risk, high-reward option and he should still be featured in the offense regardless. What do you think about the move? Let us know in the comments!

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates!

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