Go get Deebo.
If the 49ers become willing to trade their disgruntled star receiver Deebo Samuel — and that remains a significant if given what an integral cog he is in their offense — Jets general manager Joe Douglas should run, not walk, to the phone and consummate a deal.
Douglas should not part ways with the team’s No. 4 overall pick in Thursday’s draft.
He should, however, be more than willing to package the 10th overall pick in a deal that would bring one of the most dynamic offensive players in the game to an offense that has ranked at the bottom of the league the past three years.
This much we know right now:
- The 26-year-old Samuel — coming off a Pro Bowl 2021 season with 77 receptions for 1,405 yards, a league-high 18.2-yard average and six touchdowns along with 365 yards rushing and another eight TDs — wants out of San Francisco. He made that publicly known on Wednesday.
- Samuel would be a seamless fit into the Jets’ offensive system run by coordinator Mike LaFleur, who was the 49ers passing game coordinator and receivers coach when Samuel was drafted in 2019.
- The Jets have been one of the worst offensive teams in the league for the past three seasons, ranked 31st in points scored in 2019 (17.3 per game), 32nd in 2020 (15.2) and 28th last season (18.2).
- The Jets need to find out if their second-year quarterback, Zach Wilson, is going to become the franchise quarterback that Sam Darnold before him never did. Darnold was drafted No. 3 overall in 2018 and discarded before last season so Wilson could be drafted No. 2 overall.
Deebo Samuel had more than 1,700 all-purpose yards for the 49ers last season. USA TODAY SportsIt’s difficult to imagine a team being wrong about two quarterbacks drafted that high consecutively, but these are the Jets.
This brings us to Samuel. You have to go back quite a few years to find the last dynamic play-making receiver the Jets have employed.
The Jets are a touchdown-starved team and have been for too long. Samuel scored 14 touchdowns in 16 games in 2021.
If the Jets can land him by using their No. 10 overall pick, even packaged with other picks, they would consider that a steal. There isn’t an offensive player in this draft that will be picked on Thursday night in Las Vegas at No. 10 overall that will be a better player than Samuel is right now.
And, speaking of steals and deals, if the Jets are able to use that No. 10 pick to get Samuel from the 49ers, that’s the 2022 first-round pick they received as part of the package they got from the Seahawks in the 2020 trade of safety Jamal Adams to Seattle.
That deal — from which the Jets received the first-round pick that brought starting guard Alijah Vera-Tucker to the team last year — has been viewed as one of the most one-sided trades in recent NFL history.
Douglas has been lauded for fleecing the Seahawks in that deal that rid the Jets of the disgruntled and disruptive Adams, who hasn’t been the star missing piece the Seahawks were hoping he’d be for them.
How ironic would it be if Douglas were able to use that pick to bring Samuel to the Jets, and Samuel turns out to be the offensive star the team has been lacking for so long and helps Wilson become the franchise quarterback the team has been chasing for decades?
Jets general manager Joe Douglas, right, and assistant GM Rex Hogan spoke to the media Thursday. Bill Kostroun/New York Post“When you break it down to keeping the main things, it’s going to be about developing and helping our young quarterback,” Douglas said. “It’s about adding as many difference-makers as you can to the roster.’’
A trade for Samuel has potential to be a legacy-changer for Douglas, whose tenure as the Jets’ general manager has not produced very good results with the team 13-36 under his watch.
Douglas, in Thursday’s pre-draft press conference at the team facility, predictably said little about the possibility of trading for Samuel. In fairness, there wasn’t much he could say without wandering into tampering territory.
“I can’t get into specifics when it comes to a player that’s not on our roster,’’ Douglas said. “I’ll just say that since coming here I’ve made it known that my job is to make this team better. We’re going to do that any avenue we can.”
Asked again about Samuel, Douglas said, “If the right opportunity presents itself, we are going to be aggressive. If the right opportunity presents itself to make this roster better, were going to attack it.’’
Well, if there was ever a time to attack, now is that time.
Go get Deebo.




