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Deebo Samuel's 2021 season with the San Francisco 49ers demonstrated how valuable he is to the franchise.
Samuel's magnificent play helped the 49ers to come within just a few points of defeating the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game to get to the Super Bowl.
According to NFL insider Clarence Hill Jr., the All-Pro receiver is now looking to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.
According to recent reports, it appears as if the star receiver has stopped following the 49ers on his Instagram account.
This is generally an indicator that a player is either unhappy with their current situation with a team or that they are perhaps angling to find another team to play for.
Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson did something similar just weeks before being traded away from the Seattle Seahawks for a bevy of picks and players.
Is Deebo Samuel deserving of being the highest-paid non-quarterback?
Before the 2021 NFL season, it's safe to say that many may have thought of Deebo Samuel as a mere important player for the San Francisco 49ers but not amongst the tops in the league.
These assumptions may have been erroneous as he exploded last season to help the team come within four points of playing in Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The former South Carolina Gamecocks standout caught 77 passes for 1,405 yards (fifth in the league) and six touchdowns for the season.
He averaged 18.2 yards per catch, which was tops in the league. Deebo is a jack-of-all-trades and premieres in the running game as well. Last season, he had 59 carries for 365 yards rushing and eight rushing touchdowns.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan does a great job lining up his star receiver in various places in the offense, as his versatility is used to thwart NFL defenses. NFL fans were able to see Deebo run reverses, bubble screens, and take jet sweeps to the house for the entirety of his career.
Perhaps this is why Samuel is adamant that he deserves to be the highest-paid player in the NFL that does not play the quarterback position.
A simple question to ask is whether or not the San Francisco 49ers would have made it to the NFC Championship game without their Swiss Army knife on the field. The answer to that question may help the team decide what they should do moving forward.
