Under general manager John Lynch’s direction, the San Francisco 49ers have assembled an impressive roster of talent. His work, along with head coach Kyle Shanahan’s strong leadership, has helped the 49ers make two Super Bowl appearances in the past six seasons, yet they’re still chasing their first championship ring.
However, when teams collect and develop so much talent as the 49ers have, the team’s salary cap tends to climb pretty high. If teams could afford to pay all the best players, they’d have no trouble competing for a playoff spot each and every season, but that isn’t the case in the NFL, where the league prefers to have a level field of competition for all 32 teams.
Yet, once teams stack up so much talent on one roster, eventually, it comes back to bite them by having a team that’s too expensive to carry into the next season. That could be where the 49ers are right now.
San Francisco 49ers ready to honor Deebo Samuel’s trade request
The San Francisco 49ers had hopes of returning to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2024 NFL season, just as they had in 2023. Yet, they instead suffered through a 6-11 season.
Last year’s team fell short, and the 2025 49ers could look quite a bit different, including the loss of a former All-Pro receiver.
Deebo Samuel recorded a career-low 44.7 receiving yards per game last season, and now he’s entering the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $15.8 million in 2025. Samuel and the 49ers haven’t been able to reach common ground on an extension, and the 29-year-old has since requested a trade.
According to 49ers general manager John Lynch, San Francisco “intends to honor” their star receiver’s trade request this offseason.
While it’s never fun to deal with a trade request of a fan favorite, the 49ers knew an eventual contract dispute with Samuel was coming, which is partially why the team decided to select Ricky Pearsall in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.