49ers trade Deebo Samuel to Commanders for 2025 5th round pick

Merl said

If the fifth year option is used on Olave it will be about $17.5M next year. I don’t call that cheap.

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17.5M is significantly cheaper than 16 of the 2024 top market WR cap hits. 14 WR cap hits are in the 38M-20M range in 2024. 17.5 will only be 12th most in 2026 as of right now. The option won’t count until the 2026 offseason. His cap hit is just 6.1M in ‘25.

For potential trade comp regarding the option’s cap, it helps that Olave hasn’t receive Pro Bowl/All-Pro accolades yet prior to the option exercise window. The option would’ve been higher in 20M+ range with those.