At this point, it is becoming routine. A player is up for an extension. They refuse to give their team an extension. The player publicly talks about their feelings on social media. Fans of the team start spouting out wild theories and accusations. Everybody pretends to be happy after the two parties come to an agreement.
It happens a lot in the NFL, but rarely does anything come out of it. It happened many times this year alone. Kyler Murray requested a large extension in February. All references to the Arizona Cards were deleted from his account. Fans went nuts. There were people who thought Murray would quit football and go back to baseball because he deleted the photos. What happened? Nothing. Murray did not sign an extension. Nothing changed. It was as if nothing happened a month and a half down the line. You would think that Murray's career in Arizona was over after all the drama surrounding him, but the Cards will continue to negotiate an extension throughout the off-season.
The same thing happened a month ago with the Philadelphia Eagles. During the height of trade speculation surrounding the former Oklahoma and Alabama quarterback, Hurts deleted his bio from his account. That was all he did! Several fans thought that was confirmation that Hurts was about to be traded. The Eagles were rumored to be landing in the trade, and if they were ahead of the Cowboys in the division. I just looked at the Eagles roster. Wouldn't you know it? Hurts is the starting quarterback. The words "Eagles" and "QB" are nowhere to be found in his bio. That's impossible, right? He was leaving Philadelphia for good after the Eagles were removed from his bio. It didn't mean anything and we're looking for the smallest hint at the next big NFL move.
These changes to social media accounts have led to wild speculation. Allen Robinson deleted references to the Bears from his socials in 2020. He stayed with the team for two years after the fact.
Sometimes the player stays with the team. In February of this year, Russell Wilson deleted his account from the social networking site. He was sent to Denver less than two weeks later. Pro Bowl running back Jordan Howard caused a stir when he deleted Bears-related photos from his social media accounts. He played the entire season with Chicago before he was traded to the Eagles.
49ers wide receiver/utility man Deebo Samuel made his displeasure in contract talks public via social media.
Samuel removed more than 80 posts from his account. Most of the images were of him in 49ers gear. The profile picture of Samuel was removed from the site. Thousands of 49ers fans have gone nuts for this revelation, given Samuel's incredible campaign and utility in the offense. Samuel is done with the 49ers and will likely request a trade very soon. I don't think that is going to happen.
Just because Samuel deleted some 49ers references from his socials doesn't mean he's done with the team. He has every right to be frustrated by the fact that he is yet to be extended prior to the final year of his contract, but he has also become one of the top receivers in the league thanks in large part to his usage in Kyle. He was crucial to the team's run to the NFC Championship Game last year and will likely be even better in 2022. He might have to wait a few more months to figure out what his salary will be in two years, so he's going to leave. That doesn't make sense.
These are the same moves that Kyler Murray pulled against the Cards when he was frustrated with extension talks, but are we supposed to believe that he will leave the team in the middle of the Super Bowl window? The idea that the 49ers wouldn't be willing to pay Samuel is ridiculous. They traded three first-round picks for a second-year quarterback who will be the face of their franchise. The general manager and the coach need Lance to succeed. You know a way to make sure he doesn't succeed? His best weapons are taken away. I know they fumbled the Garoppolo situation, but surely they can be dumb, right?
Samuel is not happy with his contract situation. I would want the security of knowing where I was going to play and how much I was going to make a year in advance. It makes sense that he would want to establish a new contract before he gets hurt. There were no Deebo Samuel trade rumors before today. There is no reason to believe that Samuel and the 49ers are going to part ways. This is a contract dispute and a public move to pressure the 49ers to give Samuel a big extension.
Let's stop reading about what players do on their social media pages. I understand why everyone is keeping an eye on the biggest players in the league, but this isn't a sign of a huge move to happen in the coming days.
It will be like the Murray and Hurts situations a month from now. We will look for someone else to remove their team from their social media accounts. Hopefully by then, we will have learned better.
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