On Friday night, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged that the team had received interest in receiver Deebo Samuel. However, Shanahan made it clear that it was not enough.
“You’ll consider anything,” Shanahan said. “You have a responsibility to help your organization the most you can. But losing a player like Deebo, it’s hard to see how that helps your organization. So you try to look into all the aspects of it and what people are willing to do, and nothing was even remotely close to what we thought would be fair to us or fair for the Niners.”
Shanahan is not just blowing smoke. Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com reported on Friday that the Jets offered the 10th overall pick and a fifth-rounder for Samuel, with a catch. The Jets also wanted a second-round pick from the 49ers.
That’s low. Insultingly low. So low that it shouldn’t have been made. Seriously. Coach Robert Saleh, whose work with Shanahan fueled Saleh’s ascension to the head-coaching ranks, surely feared that this offer wouldn’t be regarded as a fair starting point for further conversations, and that it would piss Shanahan off. While no one should lead with their bottom line in any bargaining effort, the first offer needs to show that the party making it is serious. The offer made by the Jets screams face slap.
The Lions, per Barrow, also made an offer that was regarded as “light” by the 49ers.
None of this changes the fact that Deebo wants out. But if the 49ers can persuade him that no one else wants him enough to make a real offer, maybe he’ll re-evaluate his expectations.
Good luck with that. The 49ers are nothing if not stubborn. Deebo seems pretty stubborn, too. He’s on the record as wanting out. The 49ers, who helped create the current mess through intentional or negligent actions or words (otherwise, he wouldn’t want out), will now have to figure out how to defuse a bomb that has already started to go off.