Some interesting clauses have emerged in Deebo Samuel’s contract that gives a bit of an indication into his role for the San Francisco 49ers.
After plenty of negotiations and talk from both sides in public, Deebo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers have come to an agreement that will see him stick around in the Bay Area for the foreseeable future.
It looked for a long time as if the deal wasn’t going to be done, with claims coming out during the offseason that Samuel wanted out of Levi’s Stadium, although the 49ers to their credit maintained throughout all of this that he wasn’t going to be traded and they managed to stick it out and get their wish.
The deal sees him sign a 3-year, $73.5m contract with $58.1m of it guaranteed, which is far from being one of the big guys in terms of salary value amongst the rest of the National Football League, not even placing him in the top ten, but it certainly sees him get his just rewards for all of the work that he has put in for the organisation.
A slow burner
Samuel didn’t have the best of starts to life in the NFL, as after putting up 802 yards in his 2019 debut season, he was in and out of the team with various injuries in 2020, before really bursting onto the scene last season.
Across the regular and postseason, he put up over 2,000 yards combined through the air and on the ground and helping the 49ers make it all the way to the NFC Championship game. And whilst Samuel was clearly very good at his job when you look at the numbers, he wasn’t too happy about how he was being used.
The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero did claim that part of the reason Samuel allegedly wanted out was that he didn’t want to be used as a dual-threat in the offense, sticking to just being a wide receiver for the most part, but it seems as if the 49ers have something else in their plans.
A clause for concern
Further details of Samuel’s contract have been released, and it seems as if there are a number of clauses in there that are tied to his performance on the ground.
As per NBCSports, the contract doesn’t restrict how much he can be utilised in the run game, and features a number of bonuses related to how well he does:
“Per a source with knowledge of the deal, Samuel gets $650,000 for each year in which he rushes for 380 yards. If he doesn’t get to 380 rushing yards but scores three rushing touchdowns, he gets $150,000 instead. But the cap on the total incentives each year is $650,000.“In other words, if he rushes for 380 yards and scores three rushing touchdowns, he still gets $650,000, not $650,000 plus $150,000.“Samuel can earn either incentive three times in the four years of the contract, capping the total incentives at $1.95 million.”
Now it could be that they are putting these in there for show, and that they do intend to utilise him less in the running game but are putting these in hoping that he doesn’t actually achieve them as they restrict his attempts.
But for him to have signed the deal, you would imagine he’d have to be happy with it, so it is going to be interesting to see if he’s the same old Samuel next year or if we’re going to see him back ot being a pure-receiver.