Reports on Wednesday confirmed that WR Deebo Samuel had formally requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers. How events unfolded leading up to this point were all too familiar for Packers fans still in the wake of Davante Adams’ trade. Word of Samuel’s unhappiness began to leak out, and it became clear that it was not just a monetary dispute. Samuel is coming in to the last year of his rookie contract and set for a huge payday. But he has apparently decided the physical toll that accompanied his usage as a running back is not in his best interest long-term.
The Packers connection is an easy one to make for Deebo. A team in need of a #1 receiver, with a head coach from the Kyle Shanahan tree. But it isn’t quite that easy. The problem with trading for Samuel, is that the Packers would likely have to send a first round pick and then some, on top of then having to immediately pay him top of market value. For a team as strapped for cash as the Packers, this might not make the most sense. Without an extension for Jaire Alexander, they likely wouldn’t have the cap space to get through the regular season after paying Samuel top dollar.
Now, given how the Packers have structured many of their contracts lately, they’ve clearly put themselves in a short championship window. Getting an established player like Samuel could help maximize this window. After the Davante Adams trade, it became clear that it wasn’t a financial decision on their part. Reports were that they offered Adams an even better deal than he ended up with in Las Vegas. But the Packers have always been willing to pay more for their own players than for those outside the organization.
And the fact of the matter is, the Packers simply have more holes to fill. After cutting both Billy Turner and Za’Darius Smith, and with both starting safeties impending free agents next season – the Packers would be better off using their draft capital to provide an influx of cheaper, talented players to round out the receiver room as well as these other needs.
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Jared is a rogue Packers fan from a Steelers family and an overall football junkie, including playing 4 years at Ithaca College. You can follow him on twitter at @JPrugar.
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