"Damn, that's a lot of chicken," Deebo Samuel said, followed by a laugh, during the second part of a feature by Overtime SZN, the football channel for Overtime, that followed the San Francisco 49ers wide receiver this offseason.
That was the player's reaction a few weeks before training camp when the Niners made an initial contract offer. Samuel's girlfriend, Mahogany, said she thought Samuel was lying when the receiver shared the numbers with her.
"I'm like, 'I can't believe it,'" she said. "I said, 'We knew this day was coming, but to actually see it, we just both said, 'Wow.'"
Sitting with his agent, Tory Dandy, Samuel acknowledged that it looked like his dream was about to come true. He was about to cash in on a big payday and ensure he and his family was financially secure. Of course, all this came after a drama-filled offseason that saw the receiver request a trade and then block out the media.
"Sh-t, I've never seen those kind of numbers in my life, especially with my right beside it," Samuel admitted, laughing again.
That wasn't the offer that Samuel eventually agreed to. Dandy said there were still details that needed to be negotiated, the most important being the guaranteed money.
"I actually was kind of anticipating [the 49ers] being a little bit lower," Dandy admitted, "because sometimes teams want to do that and creep their way up, creep their way up throughout negotiations."
Samuel eventually accepted an offer from the 49ers, officially signing the deal on August 1, after training camp started. It was a three-year extension worth a maximum of $73.5 million with a signing bonus of $24 million and $58.1 million in total guarantees.
"I wanted to get the deal done before camp started," Samuel said. "I wanted to be out there the first week of camp. At the end of the day, we got it done. ... My number one priority is my son; set up college funds and all this stuff for him, so when it's time for him to go to school, just be whatever he want to be in life."
