Deebo Samuel: I’ll repay the Commanders for their trust in me following the trade

After the Washington Commanders traded for Deebo Samuel and guaranteed the last year of his contract, Samuel said he wants to repay the team for their trust in him.

“They put this much trust in me,” Samuel said. “I can’t come in here and let them down.”

Washington traded a fifth-round pick to San Francisco for Samuel on March 1, and the deal was finalized 11 days later. Samuel had asked for a trade after the season.

Washington chose not to accept his option bonus of $15.4 million, which would have allowed the team to spread out his cap hit over two years by adding another year to his contract. However, this bonus would have automatically been canceled. Instead, the Commanders guaranteed the final year of his contract, which had not been guaranteed before, and added $3 million in performance incentives. He will count $17.55 million against Washington’s salary cap.

At the same time, Washington also signed receiver Michael Gallup to a one-year contract. Gallup had retired last year after being released by Dallas and joining Las Vegas.

For Samuel, joining Washington marks a fresh start after six seasons with San Francisco. In his first press conference since the trade, Samuel explained that asking the 49ers for a trade was “tougher than you think,” but he’s eager to show his new team what he can do.

“They’re getting a motivated Deebo,” he said via video conference. “You get a dawg out there. These young legs are still moving, this body is still working pretty well.”

After the season, Samuel told 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan that he wanted to be traded

Washington was one of five teams on Samuel’s list of preferred destinations. He said the reason was simple, and his answer emphasized Washington’s fast improvement as a team.

“I like winners,” Samuel said. “I’m not one of your biggest losers. They’ve got a good team for sure and they were just standing out.”

Washington finished 12-5, marking its first winning season since 2016. The team lost to Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game, but it was their first playoff win since the 2005 season.

The Commanders have a talented young quarterback in Jayden Daniels, who was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year last season. This was one of the reasons Samuel was interested in joining Washington.

Samuel said his former 49ers teammate, Brandon Aiyuk, who played with Daniels at Arizona State, often spoke highly of the quarterback.

“That’s all B.A. used to talk about, ‘My boy is about to win the Heisman. My boy is about to do this, my boy’s about to do that,'” Samuel said. “He won the Heisman and came to the league and played extremely well. Everything Aiyuk said would happen, happened.”

“Just to see him grow and see how well he played last year I was like, man why not try to come over here and help in any aspect that I can.”

Samuel helped San Francisco as both a receiver (4,792 yards, 22 touchdowns) and a runner (1,143 yards, 20 touchdowns). However, last year he wasn’t as effective due to several injuries. He ended with only 806 yards from scrimmage, his lowest total except for a season in 2020 when he played just seven games.

But Samuel felt it was time to leave San Francisco, even though it wasn’t easy to ask coach Kyle Shanahan for a trade

“One of the hardest things was walking into the office and talking to Kyle about this because of the relationship we built,” he said. “He was my coach at the Senior Bowl. He’s always been a man of his word. It was a tough conversation. But we both understood where I was coming from, and I understood where he was coming from.”

Samuel also mentioned how the people around him are motivated to help him improve, mentioning how his brother recently called him to check if he had worked out that day.

“Everyone wants to see me take my game to a level I don’t think it can go,” he said, “but everyone says there’s another level so I’ll push myself to that level.”

For Gallup, joining Washington is a chance to revive his career. He caught 266 passes in six seasons with Dallas, three of which were when Washington coach Dan Quinn was Dallas’ defensive coordinator.

Gallup said he wasn’t “in the right head space” last season and needed to step away.

“The way I was let go from being in some place for so long and then jumping to a whole other team and not being able to process it,” Gallup said. “I never went through that before. It was fast for me and I wasn’t there yet.”

However, he always knew he’d return to the NFL. He watched games with his son and said, “every time we turned on the game it was like, I need to be out there making plays, too.”

Gallup averaged 15.6 yards per catch in his first three seasons, but his average dropped to 11.9 yards over the last three years. In 2023, Gallup caught 34 passes for 418 yards.

“There’s a lot of meat on that bone,” Gallup said. “I’ve got a lot of fire up in me.”