Are you buying the report that Deebo Samuel doesn’t want to be a 49er?

Times have changed. In 2022, both the player and the team can get their message across via social media. Why? Because they know everyone will react one way or another.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter had this to say on NFL Live:

Listen, San Francisco wants to pay Deebo Samuel. But Deebo Samuel was the one who scrubbed the 49ers off his social media page. Deebo Samuel was the one who made it known that he was the one who wanted to move on.

San Francisco would pay Deebo Samuel today, tomorrow, the next day. It’s not hard to figure out what the contract would look like. We’ve seen some of the top numbers in the league.

This right now is Deebo Samuel not wanting to get a deal done. It’s not San Francisco willing to do a deal. Deebo Samuel is the one who put a halt to everything right now.

After the year that he’s had, it’s difficult for me to take Schefter seriously on any topic. Shoot, this time last year, he was going out of his way to say the 49ers were taking Mac Jones. If you look up the definition of a shill, a picture of Schefter would appear.

Schefter’s is rarely pro-player, and this is no different. If a team wants to get a deal done, and the numbers are in the ballpark of what the player wants, the deal gets done. We see it every year. So why wouldn’t a player, especially Deebo, who has an injury history, take the security of the contract?

Now, separating the reporter from the report. What Schefter said could be the Niners attempting to save face for an eventual trade — whether that’s to make it seem like it was their idea to move him or vice versa is a can of worms that we don’t have to get into just yet.

I’m buying the part that says, “Deebo shut down.” Why? He probably saw what the offers DK Metcalf and A.J. Brown were getting, felt like he was being low-balled by what the Niners offered, countered, and still felt like he wasn’t getting what his worth was then that became public.

The 49ers use Schefter and other reporters to say, “look, we made an offer, and he won’t sign!” Samuel, being a part of contract negotiations for the first time, became even more upset, and perhaps that’s where he asked for a trade.

This is the ugly part of the business. It’s April, and there’s no reason for the 49ers to budge. If you’re Deebo, and you know Brown and Metcalf are in line for a hefty payday, taking whatever the initial offer from San Francisco was wouldn’t make sense.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. We don’t have to be on the extreme end of either side. It’d be naive to ignore the potential of Samuel being traded. We know desperate teams such as the Jets would give the Niners the draft compensation they covet if they felt they couldn’t get a deal done with Deebo.

On the other end, it was floating around the internet Tuesday that Deebo’s brother was telling people that they requested a trade and that he’s a goner. Forgive me for not writing an article with that headline. Again, it’s April. This could be the first stalemate. We have a long way to go. It’s about who is willing to budge first.

Will the Niners crack and deal Deebo by the draft next week? It’s possible. Schefter’s report doesn’t come off as it’s in good faith. And due to that, I’m not buying that Deebo doesn’t want to be a Niner.