However, moving Samuel will be challenging due to the significant salary cap implications. If the 49ers trade him before June 1, they will take nearly twice the cap hit of keeping him, making a post-June 1 release designation possible.
Barnwell highlighted Samuel's most valuable trait—his yards after the catch (YAC). However, the longtime writer examined Samuel's YAC production since 2021, when the receiver put up a career-best 1,770 scrimmage yards and 14 total touchdowns, including 1,405 receiving yards. Since then, Samuel has failed to approach those numbers, with 2021 standing as his only season surpassing 900 receiving yards.
Still, Samuel remained productive after the catch last season. His 417 YAC yards ranked 15th among NFL receivers, while his 8.2 YAC per reception ranked fourth.
"If you've watched any 49ers games over the past few years, you've seen Samuel bursting through tackles or running away from defenders in the open field," Barnwell noted. "He's one of the league's most difficult players to bring down."
That's where the praise ended and the more recent analysis started.
"The problem is most everything else," Barnwell added.
Samuel is coming off the worst statistical season of his career, excluding an injury-plagued 2020 campaign. In 2024, he recorded just 806 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns.
"Samuel ranked 137th in catch score while dropping four of his 80 targets on the season," Barnwell explained. "After a hot start, he seemed to fade as the year went along; he failed to top 25 receiving yards in six of his final seven games. Without Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk, the San Francisco offense instead seemed to flow through Kittle and Jordan Mason or Isaac Guerendo, with Jauan Jennings as the team's third-down threat at receiver."
While the 49ers have long used Samuel as a dual-threat offensive weapon, his impact as a rusher has also declined. After averaging an impressive 6.1 yards per carry in 2023, that number dropped to a modest 3.2 yards per attempt in 2024.
"Yards per carry can be misleading if a player is picking up a lot of short-yardage first downs," Barnwell wrote, "but he went from generating first downs on more than 30% of his runs from 2021 to 2023 to just 11.9% this season."
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