After the 49ers finished off a disappointing 6-11 season, Deebo Samuel requested a trade. The 49ers granted his wish March 1 in exchange for a fifth-round pick.<\/p>\n
He goes from a team in rebuild mode to one that is ascending, having made the NFC Championship Game last season.<\/p>\n
Samuel said in his introductory news conference Thursday that his decision was \u201ctougher than most people think\u201d because of the relationships he developed in San Francisco. He gave the 49ers a list of five preferred destinations, with Washington one of the five.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in San Francisco, I like winners. I like to win,\u201d Samuel said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone. com. \u201cI\u2019m not one of your biggest losers. They went to the NFC Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Commanders had several draws for Samuel, including his familiarity with General Manager Adam Peters, who previously served as the 49ers\u2019 assistant G.M., and his desire to return to the East Coast. The Commanders\u2019 immediate turnaround with quarterback Jayden Daniels also was a plus.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t hurt that the team committed to Samuel by reworking his contract to guarantee $17 million of his 2025 salary while adding $3 million in incentives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat meant a lot,\u201d Samuel said. \u201cBy not stepping on the field for this team, not meeting everybody in the building, it just kind of shows what they think. And for me, on my end, it\u2019s just like, they put as much trust in me to do the things they did as far as my contract, I can\u2019t come in here and let them down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to give it my all, do all the things that I need to do to be the best version of myself when I come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel is coming off a disappointing season with only 806 scrimmage yards and four total touchdowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the 49ers finished off a disappointing 6-11 season, Deebo Samuel requested a trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n