When the 49ers finally gave Brandon Aiyuk a four-year, $120 million extension, it seemed clear that the 49ers couldn't afford Deebo Samuel much longer and would have to trade or release him within the next year. Doing so would save them lots of cap space.
SANTA CLARA -- When the 49ers finally gave Brandon Aiyuk a four-year, $120 million extension, it seemed clear that the 49ers couldn't affordmuch longer and would have to trade or release him within the next year. Doing so would save them lots of salary cap space.
Then the 49ers restructured Samuel's contract recently to create $16 million of cap space for this year. But now if the 49ers try to trade or cut Samuel next year before June 1, they'll take on $31.5 million in dead cap space."I don't know what y'all think restructuring a contract means," Samuel said Thursday in the 49ers locker room, "but that's not for y'all to know. It's for us to know.
Sounds like Samuel isn't any more sure of his future now than he was before he restructured his deal. Why is that? Don't forget that the 49ers also restructured Arik Armstead's contract last year, then cut him this year with a post-June-1 designation because he missed games due to injury. Which means the 49ers could do the exact same thing to Samuel if he gets injured, which he does literally every season. They could cut him after June 1.
That's why Samuel knows the reconstructed deal doesn't mean anything about his future. It simply means the 49ers are desperate to create cap space that they can roll over to next year.Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis.
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