Deebo Samuel won’t be leaving San Francisco if 49ers general manager John Lynch has his way.
While the star wide receiver recently requested a trade, Lynch isn’t interested in dealing his team’s top offensive weapon.
“I can’t ever imagine wanting to move on from Deebo,” Lynch said Monday in a pre-draft press conference. “You put yourself through the exercises of even though we don’t have a first-round pick, you have to be thorough in this process and prepare for everything, and … you go through and do that. He’s just too good of a player.”
Lynch would not get into details of contract negotiations with Samuel, who is heading into the last year of his rookie deal and is due to make $3.99 million this year with a salary-cap hit of $4.89 million, according to Spotrac.com.
“I know you (reporters) have jobs to do, and everyone’s very curious about Deebo and what’s going on there. I would ask for your guys’ understanding and a little perspective that I’m not going to talk about that much today, because I don’t think that’s productive,” Lynch said. “I don’t want to speak on behalf of Deebo and his team, and I think it’s non-productive for us to be talking about things.”
Samuel, 26, made first-team All-Pro last season after proving to be effective as both a ball carrier and a pass catcher. He made 77 receptions for 1,405 yards (league-leading 18.2 yards per catch) and six touchdowns, and he added 59 carries for 365 yards and eight touchdowns.
In three postseason games this year, Samuel added 10 catches for 154 yards and a TD plus 27 carries for 137 yards and a score.
The 49ers selected Samuel in the second round of the 2019 draft out of South Carolina.
