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Nick Wagoner
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As the San Francisco 49ers prepared for free agency and the NFL draft last year, there was a subtle but unmistakable sense that wide receiver was a sneaky roster need.
On Saturday, the 49ers agreed to trade wideout Deebo Samuel Sr. to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a fifth-round pick and now find themselves in a similar situation, though there’s nothing sneaky about it this time.
Although a Samuel trade felt inevitable since he requested it in his end-of-season meeting, it doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier for general manager John Lynch, who called Samuel one of his favorite draft picks since he took over in 2017.
“There’s a lot of love there,” Lynch said this week at the NFL combine. “There’s a lot of respect there. There’s a lot of shared experiences, so to let that go, that’s difficult. But time happens, and if it makes sense for both sides, you at least give it a chance.”
With Samuel set to wear a different jersey for the first time in his career, the trade bumps wide receiver up the list of offseason needs for the Niners. And while it might be below fixing the offensive and defensive lines, it’s not far behind.
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 for 2025.
Within that group, Aiyuk is coming off a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee, Jennings is entering the final year of the contract extension he signed last summer, Pearsall and Cowing are unproven heading into their second NFL seasons and Taylor spent most of last year on the practice squad.
Remove Samuel from that group and San Francisco’s returning receivers combined for 70 receptions for 1,024 yards and five touchdowns in 2024, which means there’s plenty of work for Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan to do at the position.
Before any of that happens, the 49ers must get a handle on the status of Aiyuk. After a roller-coaster contract negotiation last summer that featured a trade request of his own and a handful of near deals, Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million extension before the season.
That’s the contract of a No. 1 receiver, and Aiyuk will be expected to handle that role when he returns from his knee injury. Of course, the Niners don’t know when that will be yet.
Aiyuk suffered the knee injury in an October loss to the Kansas City Chiefs after a slow start to the season. Lynch said Aiyuk is “doing well” but that he is slated to meet with Dr. Neal ElAttrache soon for an update.
“He’s putting in the work,” Lynch said. “That’s what you have to do. And I’ve always said the real top-end athletes tend to heal at a little faster rate, and I think that’s going on with Brandon as well, but there’s like a big test at some point. … We’ll see where that lies.”
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Deebo Samuel’s touchdowns from last season
Watch all four of Deebo Samuel’s touchdowns with the 49ers last season as he’s headed to the Commanders in a trade.
Until Aiyuk returns, the Niners hope Jennings can continue to carry the freight. Jennings is coming off his best NFL season, posting career highs in receptions (77), yards (975) and touchdowns (six). He finished 10th in yards per route run (2.51) and had one drop on top of being what Shanahan considers one of the best blocking wideouts in the league.
“I proved I just never give up,” Jennings said. “First quarter, the fourth quarter, first snap to last snap. JJ just never gives up.”
Entering 2025, Jennings is slated to count $4.258 million against the cap in the final year of the two-year, $15.39 million extension he signed last offseason. If he authors a strong encore, he could price his contract out of San Francisco’s future plans.
Which is why Pearsall’s development will be one of the most important Niners storylines in the 2025 season. Pearsall got off to a slow start as a rookie after hamstring and shoulder injuries cost him most of training camp, and then he was shot in the chest in an alleged attempted robbery in San Francisco before the season.
Pearsall missed the first six games on the reserve/non-football injury list and didn’t score his first touchdown until Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he flashed the potential that made him the No. 31 pick in last year’s draft when he racked up 18 receptions for 247 yards and a pair of scores over the final three weeks.
The 49ers hope a full offseason will position him to step into a starting role and make a sizable second-year leap.
“I’m definitely excited to build on stuff that I left off on and continue to grow as a player,” Pearsall said in January. “And now I know what’s expected. I’m not going to be a rookie anymore, so nothing’s going to be really new, so I’ll be able to definitely grow.”
But even if Jennings and Pearsall build on last season, the 49ers figure to be players in the receiver market in free agency and look to add more in the draft. The Niners are expected to have 11 picks this year, pending compensatory choices. Midmarket veterans such as Robert Woods, Darius Slayton and Amari Cooper could make sense, depending on the cost of their contracts.
And though it’s unlikely they would use their first pick — No. 11 — on a receiver, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it could be a wideout such as Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan if he is the best player on the board when it’s the 49ers’ turn to select.
Others, such as Missouri’s Luther Burden III and Mississippi’s Tre Harris, could also be intriguing options in Round 2 or with a slight move up into the first round.
Last year, the 49ers signed veterans Chris Conley and Taylor and drafted Pearsall and Cowing in the first and fourth rounds, respectively.
With Samuel gone, it will be no surprise if the Niners follow a similar plan in the coming weeks.
