SANTA CLARA – Deebo Samuel’s self-authored goodbye story is titled “Thank you, San Francisco.” What transpires over the next 2133 words reads like a Deebo Diary, plus a Dear John (and Kyle) letter.
The 49ers’ trade of Samuel to the Washington Commanders was agreed to Saturday and can’t become official until Wednesday’s start of the new league year. It will end a six-year tenure that ranks as one of the best in 49ers history, blending dual-threat achievements and big-time swagger with disappointing dips and inevitable injuries.
Samuel, in a dispatch posted Thursday on ThePlayersTribune.com, expressed his gratitude to the 49ers’ organization and his optimism to the Commanders at what is to come.
Here are key takeaways from what he wrote (and those words do come across in Deebo’s direct dialect):
1. SINCERE THANK YOU
Samuel certainly did not burn bridges on his way out of Santa Clara, nor should he considering he put the onus on him for requesting a trade at season’s end in January, when he first appealed to coach Kyle Shanahan and then general manager John Lynch.
“The relationship that me and Kyle got is ridiculous. You can ask anybody in the building. One minute, he wanna knock my head off, and the next he’s just going crazy, excited at something I’m doing. I’ve always felt like he coaches me harder than anybody else because at the end of the day, he knows I ain’t no sensitive-ass player. If you tell me I messed up, I take it on the chin and go fix it instantly.
“But our relationship is more than just ‘The Coach’ and ‘The Player,’ ” Samuel added. “Kyle knows damn near everything that I’ve been through in my life, and I damn near know everything he done been through. It’s like that. It’s a bond you could never break. So, we talked it out. It was hard, in its own way. But more than anything, I was just proud of the way we both handled it, as men.”
Samuel traced that bond with Shanahan and Lynch all the way back to the 2017 Senior Bowl, where the 49ers vowed to draft him and did just that with a second-round pick.
Samuel described the 49ers as a “top-tier, world-class” organization from the York-family ownership on down. Six years into their union, a mutual parting is how it ends.
“For John and Kyle to send me to a team in the NFC that was almost a Super Bowl contender, it just shows you the type of love and relationship that we have,” Samuel wrote. “I know at the end of the day, they didn’t have to do that. So, it’s not a lick of bad blood when it comes to me and that organization. It’s always love.”
2. ACHIEVEMENTS/SHORTCOMINGS
Samuel referred to his six-year tenure as a “fairytale” full of “all these damn memories, man.” He did not regale too long about his yards-after-the-catch highlights or rushing-and-receiving exploits, though he did pinpoint how his 189-yard output in the 2021 opener foreshadowed his breakout, All-Pro season – and one that he said then-receivers coach Wes Welker predicted.
Like most anyone who goes to the Super Bowl as a rookie, Samuel said he thought that would be an annual experience, and going deep in the playoffs indeed was almost a birthright for he and other members of that 2019 draft class, including Nick Bosa and Dre Greenlaw. but it wasn’t one he got to again until the 2023 season.
“All we know is like NFC Championship, Super Bowl, NFC Championship, Super Bowl. But my biggest regret is that we never finished the damn job,” Samuel wrote. “The second one actually hurt more because I’ve been in the game long enough. And at that point, you know you’re going to lose some players, key players at that. But in that moment, not only am I thinking about myself, I thought about the other players who were almost at the end of their career. Trent Williams, one of my best friends, like a big brother to me and mentor, I wanted it so bad for him. I was ready to put it all on the line to help him get his ring. I wanted that for all of us. I was just like, Bro, we gotta win. This is the year that we have to do it. And we fell short.”
Samuel singled out his receiver-room teammates including Kendrick Bourne, Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing.
Wrote Samuel: “When the trade happened, and my mind was flipping through all the memories like a scrapbook or something, I just kept reflecting on how our guys put in so much work together. Our locker room gave college vibes, you know what I mean? It wasn’t like your typical locker room. Everybody’s so close, everybody hangs out. I think about how close I got with Aiyuk when he first came in as a rookie, back when he wasn’t talking to nobody lol. I knew J.J. a little bit from college. And then younger guys like Ricky and Jacob that I built relationships with, who are close as hell to me to this day. It’s not as easy as people think.”
3. BACK TO THE EAST COAST
Samuel shared a funny anecdote about the culture shock he experienced coming to California: He made a trip to Target and couldn’t fathom that bags cost “10 cents!” He relayed that to his mom back home and although they laughed about it, Samuel said it made him wondering “What am I getting into?”
Now he’s getting back to the East Coast. And it isn’t lost on him that his new quarterback, Jayden Daniels, is one of Aiyuk’s best friends and someone they’d watch in college. Samuel says he knew Daniels would be a “stud” in the NFL (he won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors last season), and Samuel noted how he’s ready to work alongside Commanders leading receiver Terry McLaurin and familiar pieces on Dan Quinn’s coaching staff.
“I got a feeling this season is about to be one of them ones,” Samuel wrote.
Rather than leave his closing words with Commanders hype, Samuel circled back and insisted it is not “bittersweet” to leave the 49ers. He extended further thanks to coaches, cooks, the communications czars, the “amazing” equipment staff, and “the whole media squad.”
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A goodbye letter wouldn’t be complete with an obligatory shoutout to the 49ers Faithful:
“Thank you for showing up to our games, showing up to my kids’ camps. When I was just a young’un with a dream, I used to picture thousands of fans packing out the building, cheering for me as I racked up TD’s. Y’all made that real. You made a kid from Spartanburg, South Carolina’s dreams come true.
Alright, time to get back to work.
—Deebo”
