Following months of speculation, the San Francisco 49ers and Deebo Samuel finally reached an agreement on a contract extension.
After threats of holding out and a trade request, Samuel signed a three-year extension worth up to $73.5 million with $58.1 million guaranteed. Nonetheless, the hybrid superstar claimed it wasn't all about the money.
Samuel was reportedly unhappy with his role as a wide receiver/running back hybrid. That's why he's likely to be less used in the running game going forward:
“I think based off of whatever happens, from my standpoint, schematically from our team’s personnel, from Deebo’s, from what we think gives us the best chance to win if we wanted to move Deebo to running back that would’ve been something that we were honest with him about towards the end of last year and the last few games he became our one, two punch,” HC Kyle Shanahan said.
The Niners were forced to use Samuel at RB more often than they'd like because of the string of injuries that depleted their RB corps:
“And also [RB] Elijah [Mitchell], who was our most physical back, he wasn’t the healthiest either. And we thought we had to play our two best guys to get done what we wanted to with our team, which was awesome," Shanahan explained. "To have that option to do that, you can’t do that with anybody you have to do that with a special player and Deebo is a special player."
He was one of the most disruptive offensive players in the league last season, wreaking havoc out of the backfield and also making an impact on the passing game:
"I think that’s why he’s earned this contract that he’s got," Shanahan concluded. "And I think that’s why he is going to continue to earn it going forward.”
The Niners added several rushing-based incentives to sweeten the deal in case they need to use him as a running back again in the future:
"Deebo Samuel will receive $650,000 per year for each year he has 380 or more rushing yards. Samuel also will earn $150,000 if he scores three rushing TDs in any one year. He maxes out at $650,000 per year and 1.95 million over the life of his new contract," Adam Schefter reported.
So, maybe, it was a little about the money.
