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49ers given a better grade than Washington after trading their former All-Pro wideout

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Kyle Posey is the Senior Producer at Niners Nation and has covered the 49ers since 2019. Kyle was an FCS wide receiver in college and has coached high school football for 8+ years. He's written for several sites and appeared on numerous podcasts. His extensive football history, paired with an accounting background, helps Kyle take an analytical and statistical approach to breaking down and covering the Niners.

You never know a player's worth until the terms of a trade are agreed upon. When the San Francisco 49ers traded wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders and received only a fifth-round pick in return, the initial reaction was that the Niners had been fleeced.

However, after it was announced that Washington would pay Deebo’s $17.55 million salary, the trade made sense for both teams. At the NFL Combine, 49ers general manager John Lynch discussed the need to get younger, which is another way of saying the team needs to get cheaper.

Mission accomplished if you’re the Niners, who had invested a first-round pick in a wide receiver in the 2024 NFL Draft. It would’ve taken a 2021-like season from Samuel for him to warrant sticking around for another season. Salary, age, not having played an entire season in his career, and the plausible reality that Deebo’s best days are behind him were critical factors in Samuel getting dealt to Washington.

ESPN’s Seth Walder is grading every trade in the NFL this offseason. He gave San Francisco’s trade a B+:

49ers grade: B+
Samuel is a unique player. At his peak, his after-the-catch skills were unparalleled. Over the past four seasons, Samuel has posted a league-high 87 YAC score — 21 points higher than every other receiver in ESPN’s receiver scores (Ja’Marr Chase is next best at 66). His exceptional yards-after-catch skills have masked his subpar abilities in other traditional receiver facets. (His open and catch scores have been below average in each of the past four seasons and declined in that span.)
Samuel’s production has declined in recent years. And after posting an absurd 1,405 receiving yards on 3.1 yards per route run (along with 365 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns) in 2021, he hasn’t approached those numbers. He’s coming off a poor 2024 in which he recorded only 670 receiving yards on 1.8 yards per route run. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if we will see Samuel, 29, come close to his peak again.
On the other hand, if the Commanders enter the season with Samuel as their No. 2 wide receiver, that will be a weakness — and I will think less of this deal.
From San Francisco’s perspective, the team has invested heavily in Brandon Aiyuk and Ricky Pearsall (and maybe could spend more on Jauan Jennings). The 49ers got a nice return for Samuel, whom — absent a trade partner — they might have released.

There are too many teams who benefited from the recent spike in the salary cap that would leave you to believe Samuel was ever getting released. The night before the trade, the Washington Commanders and Houston Texans emerged as serious suitors. The rumor mill would’ve grown stronger the closer we got to the NFL Draft.

The pick the 49ers received in their trade not only gives them a fifth-rounder — they had initially forfeited their 5th-round pick in 2025 — it’s ninth overall in that round. That’s more ammo to either hit on another prospect or package that pick to move up a few spots in the draft if a player falls into their range in one of the early rounds.

There are salary ramifications that we’ll go over later today. Offloading Deebo’s contract in the short term will be worth the long-term dead money. We can debate whether the 49ers waited a year or two too late to move on from Samuel, but they’re one year removed from a Super Bowl. Brandon Aiyuk, Pearsall, and Jauan Jennings hardly put the 49ers wide receiver group behind the 8-ball.

If the 49ers can replace Samuel’s production in the offense at a fraction of the cost moving forward, a B+ is warranted.