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Nick Waggoner
Santa Clara, California – While the 49ers of San Francisco prepared for free agency and NFL draft last year, there was a subtle but unmistakable sense that the open receiver was a poaching.
On Saturday, the 49ers agreed to exchange Debo Samuel to the Washington commanders in exchange for a fifth round team and now they are in a similar situation, although this time there is nothing furtive.
Although a trade from Samuel was inevitable since he requested it at his meeting of late season, he does not make goodbye easier for general manager John Lynch, who called Samuel one of his favorite Draft teams since he assumed the position in 2017.
“There is a lot of love there,” Lynch said this week at NFL Combine. “There is a lot of respect there. There are many shared experiences, so to let it pass, that is difficult. But time happens and if it makes sense for both parties, at least you give it a chance.”
With Samuel ready to wear a different shirt for the first time in his career, trade increases the open receiver of the low season needs list for niners. And although it could then be fixing the offensive and defensive lines, it is not far away.
The 49ers have five receivers, Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, Jacob Cowing and Trent Taylor, who caught a pass for them in 2024 under contract by 2025.
Within that group, Aiyuk comes from a torn and MCL ACL in its right knee, Jennings is entering the last year of the extension of the contract that signed last summer, Pearsall and Cowing are not tested in their second seasons of the NFL and Taylor spent most of the last year in the practice team.
Remove Samuel from that group and the receptors that return from San Francisco combined for 70 receptions for 1,024 yards and five touchdowns in 2024, which means that there is a lot of work for Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan to do in position.
Before something happens, the 49ers must handle Aiyuk’s state. After a negotiation of Russian mountain contracts last summer that submitted its own commercial application and a handful of almost agreements, Aiyuk signed an extension of four years and $ 120 million before the season.
That is the contract of a receiver No. 1 and it is expected that Aiyuk manages that role when he will return from his knee injury. Of course, niners do not know when it will still be.
Aiyuk suffered the knee injury in a defeat in October against the heads of Kansas City, after a slow beginning of the season. Lynch said that Aiyuk is “good”, but that he is scheduled to meet with Dr. Neal Elattrache soon for an update on his state.
“He is working at work,” Lynch said. “That is what you have to do. And I have always said that high -end athletes tend to heal at a slightly faster rate and I think that is also happening with Brandon, but there is a great test at some point … we will see where that is.”
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The Samuel Debo TouchDowns last season
Look at the four TouchDowns of Debo Samuel with the 49ers last season while heading to the commanders in an exchange.
Until Aiyuk returns, it is Jennings who nicers hope they can continue carrying the load. Jennings comes from her best NFL season, publishing maximum career at receptions (77), Yardas (975) and TouchDowns (six). It ended tenth in yards per route race (2.51) and had a fall on top of being what Shanahan considers one of the best blocking scorers in the league.
“I tried that I never surrender to me,” Jennings said. “The first quarter, the fourth quarter, the first click in the last Snap. JJ simply never surrenders.”
Upon entering 2025, Jennings is scheduled to count $ 4,258 million against the limit in the last year of the extension of two years and $ 15.39 million signed by the low season. If author of a strong bis, he could be expelled from the future plans of San Francisco.
That is why Pearsall’s development will be one of the most important stories of Niners in the 2025 season. Pearsall had a slow beginning when a rookie after the lesions in the hamstrings and the shoulders cost him most of the training camp and then shot him in the chest in an alleged attempted robbery in San Francisco before the season.
Pearsall lost the first six games in the list of reserve/non -football injuries and did not score his first touchdown until week 10 against the Bay Buccaneers. But he showed the potential that made him general selection No. 31 in the draft last year when he accumulated 18 receptions for 247 yards and a couple of scores during the last three weeks.
The hope of the 49ers a complete season will position it to enter an initial role and make a considerable leap of the second year.
“I am definitely excited to build about things that I left and continue growing as a player,” Pearsall said in January. “And now I know what is expected. I’m no longer going to be a rookie, so nothing will be really new, so I can definitely grow.”
But even if Jennings and Pearsall are based on last season, the 49ers appear to be players in the free agency market and seek to add more in the draft. Niners are expected to have 11 selections this year, waiting for compensatory elections. The average market veterans such as Robert Woods, Darius Slayton and Amari Cooper could make sense, depending on the cost.
And although they are unlikely that they use their first selection, the number 11 in general, in a receiver, is not outside the scope of the possibility that it can be a wide departure as Tetaira McMillan de Arizona if it is the best player on the board when it is the turn of the 49ers to select.
Others, such as Luther Burden III III of Missouri and Tre Harris of Mississippi, could also be intriguing options in Round 2 or with a slight movement towards the first round.
Last year, the 49ers signed the veterans Chris Conley and Taylor and wrote Pearsall and Cowing in the first and fourth round, respectively.
With Samuel missing, it would not be a surprise if the nikes follow a similar plan in the coming weeks.