The Commanders and 49ers agreed on a trade that will send Deebo Samuel from San Francisco to Washington for a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. This trade will not be official until the start of the new league year next week and the Commanders will take on Samuel’s $17.5 million salary in 2025. From a Fantasy Football standpoint, the trade has major implications for both offenses — two teams that produced a ton of Fantasy points for large stretches of the 2024 season.

Dave Richard of Fantasy Football Today sees the 49ers receivers as the biggest winners of the Samuel trade. Specifically, he looks at Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall as the biggest winners. With Brandon Aiyuk recovering from a torn ACL, not likely to start Week 1 of the 2025 season, and also reportedly on the trade block as well, both Jennings and Pearsall could be big-time Fantasy contributors in 2025.

Richard honed in on Jennings, who already has the built-in rapport and established track record of success with quarterback Brock Purdy, as the clear-cut winner of this deal. Dave ranks him now as a low-end WR3 with a target volume of 7+ targets per game in his future. Specifically, Dave likes Jennings’ ability to win in the red zone. Pearsall is more of a projection, but his route running and speed on display on tape lead Dave to believe he will be a popular sleeper in 2025.

Is the trade a win for Samuel? According to Dave, it’s not notable. While he will benefit from going to a team with less competition for targets, the overall pass volume of the Commanders could be down from what he had with the 49ers. Dave also believes Samuel could see fewer overall touches as his carries out of the backfield may not be there in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. Terry McLaurin will remain the No. 1 option in this offense. Dave will not rank Samuel inside his top-36 receivers overall, at least not at this moment, and he would draft both Jennings and Pearsall before him.

Don’t expect this move to hurt McLaurin’s Fantasy value in 2025. McLaurin benefited from 16 end-zone targets in 2024. Samuel has 17 total end zone targets in his career and just two total in 2024 despite Aiyuk’s injury. This won’t impact McLaurin’s red zone value and Dave still views him as a top-20 Fantasy receiver. Natural regression will likely lead to fewer touchdowns in 2025 for McLaurin even if Samuel isn’t the receiver to take them away.

If Samuel transitions fast with the Commanders, it will be because Kingsbury has a plan for him similar to what Kyle Shanahan found for him. Low average depth of target throws, targets around the line of scrimmage, and getting him in space. The Commanders finished in the top five overall among all teams in wide receiver screen targets in 2024. Samuel will factor into the screen game right away. 

On FFT, only Heath Cummings was willing to rank Samuel inside his top-36 overall at wide receiver following the news. 

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