The San Francisco 49ers “are expected to explore trading” wide receiver Deebo Samuel, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

“While it’s not a certainty that Samuel is done in San Francisco, it’s enough of a possibility that both sides appear to be at peace with moving on if it goes that way,” Rapoport said.

The 2021 All-Pro watched his production go backward this season. He caught 51 passes for 670 yards and three touchdowns in 15 appearances.

His usage was a point of contention for Samuel. In a since-deleted post on X in December, he said he was “not struggling at all just not getting the ball!!!!!!!” While the 29-year-old took down the message, he didn’t walk back from the sentiment when addressing it publicly.

“You read what you read. [I’m] a little frustrated for sure,” he told reporters on Dec. 10.

Should Samuel get traded, the writing was on the wall based on San Francisco’s offseason business last year. The team used a first-round pick on Ricky Pearsall and then signed Brandon Aiyuk to a $120 million extension.

Although Aiyuk is recovering from ACL and MCL tears that ended his season after seven games, it looks like the organization is prepared to move forward with he and Pearsall as the top two options in the passing attack.

One complication in trading Samuel is that the Niners are incentivized to wait well past the draft to actually make the move.

Any trade before June 1 will put $31 million in dead money on the books and cost San Francisco $15.2 million against the salary cap. By executing the deal on June 2 or later, the team would spread the dead money hit across 2025 ($10.6 million) and 2026 ($20.4 million) while saving $5.2 million toward the cap.

A resolution to this situation could be a few months away.