On the surface, it’s weird to see CB Asante Samuel Jr. still available heading into July. He’s 25 years old and accumulated six interceptions and 35 pass breakups in his first three years. That sort of profile for a cornerback usually is in high demand given the league-wide scarcity at the position.
However, injuries have complicated what would otherwise be a straightforward situation. Samuel played just four games last year due to what was listed as a shoulder injury. At one point, the veteran said he had “stinger” symptoms that were worsened by contact, and that it was something he had been dealing with and likely would be dealing with for a long time. Stingers are nerve injuries, often in the shoulder and neck for football players, that cause sensations of burning, stinging, weakness and numbness.
Samuel has remained unsigned because he has not been cleared from that injury yet. He had an operation this offseason on his neck to try and correct the issue, and the latest word is that he should have a progress report in July to pass on to teams. Samuel still intends to play but getting that medical clearance will be an important step.
He’s had visits with multiple teams and if/when he’s cleared should have a healthy market with teams looking to solidify their cornerback rooms going into training camp. We have him ranked as our second-best available free agent and the top corner in a fairly solid pool for this time of year.
He’s not going to be a fit for every team, though. At 5-10 and 180 pounds, Samuel is built like a nickel corner but has only played 40 career snaps in the slot compared to almost 3,000 outside. Some of that is because he’s not a strong tackler, which is more important for slot defenders, and his injury history will be another factor warding teams away from putting him in the box.
Either way, he won’t check the boxes for what some teams want to see in their outside cornerbacks, and teams that need help at nickel likely won’t have him rated high. However, Samuel’s ball production and cover skills speak for themselves and he can be a useful player.
Samuel, 25, is the son of former NFL CB Asante Samuel and opted out of the 2020 collegiate season after eight games at Florida State. The Chargers drafted Samuel Jr. with pick No. 47 overall in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Samuel played out the final year of his four-year deal worth $7,222,944 that included a $2,613,050 signing bonus. He’s been testing the market as an unrestricted free agent.
In 2024, Samuel appeared in four games for the Chargers and recorded 13 tackles, no interceptions and two pass defenses.
We have him included in our Top 100 Available Free Agents list.
New Orleans Saints
We did a post earlier this summer looking at the best landing spots for our top-ten available free agents, including Samuel. The Saints were the frontrunners then and they remain the leading option now. New Orleans is one of the teams that’s hosted Samuel for a visit and has been monitoring his medical situation. They have a need at cornerback, specifically on the outside, as right now journeyman Isaac Yiadom and fourth-rounder Quincy Riley are set to compete for the second spot across from 2024 second-rounder Kool-Aid McKinstry.
The Saints also should be able to have the cleanest projection for Samuel in their defensive system of any team, as there are multiple connections on the coaching staff. Samuel played for Saints DC Brandon Staley during his first three seasons, and he also overlapped with HC Kellen Moore for a year. Staley has seen Samuel at his best and should have a good idea of how to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses in his system.
I could see the Saints wanting to see how Yiadom and Riley do early in camp before bringing in Samuel, as if one of them grabs hold of the starting job, then Samuel becomes extraneous. Still, there would be room for all three, and Samuel’s injury history means the Saints will want to have depth behind him anyway. New Orleans has plenty of cap space but Samuel is unlikely to make much more than what the Ravens just gave veteran CB Jaire Alexander (one year, $4 million base, max value of $6 million).
Miami Dolphins
You can’t talk about cornerbacks this summer without talking about the Dolphins, as they have the top player potentially available in veteran Jalen Ramsey, who is ostentatiously on the trade block. Trading Ramsey takes cornerback from a glaring need to a five-alarm fire for Miami, and they almost certainly will add to the room before Week 1. They’ve been connected to nearly half a dozen veteran corners in recent weeks.
Samuel is one of the players Miami has been keeping tabs on, and he’d easily be the youngest of the options the Dolphins are considering. That gives him the potential to be more than a one-year band-aid and the highest-upside cornerback the Dolphins could add at this stage. His injury history means he’ll almost certainly be affordable for a cost-conscious Miami team. Samuel is also from Florida and went to Florida State, so a return to his roots would likely be appealing.
What it will come down to is whether the two sides can agree on a contract, and whether Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver sees Samuel as a fit in his scheme. The Dolphins are looking for outside corners to compete with Cam Smith, Storm Duck, fifth-rounder Jason Marshall and others. Every corner on the roster right now is 6-0 or taller, with the exception of starting slot CB Kader Kohou and 5-11 Ryan Cooper, who has already bounced on and off the team this spring and might be the 89th or 90th player on the 90-man roster. If the Dolphins think Samuel is big enough or can make up for that with other traits, there’s a good chance Cooper’s roster spot is the one he takes.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have quietly been lurking in the cornerback market this offseason, most notably showing interest in Alexander once he was cut by the Packers before he signed with the Ravens. They’ve already added veteran CB Kristian Fulton and third-rounder Nohl Williams to compete with a group that’s wide open for roles outside of star CB Trent McDuffie. Perhaps the Chiefs wait to see how things develop in camp or if injuries thin the herd, but Samuel makes a lot of sense for the style the Chiefs play. They already have a good amount of familiarity with Samuel as a division rival for his whole career, and it led to them adding another former Charger corner in Fulton.
Atlanta Falcons
Who knows if the Falcons think cornerback is as big a need as some outside observers do. They didn’t do much at the position this offseason, but they also didn’t have a lot of cap space or draft picks to work with. Regardless, Mike Hughes and Dee Alford weren’t outstanding running mates for top CB AJ Terrell last year and it’s unlikely they’ll be markedly better in 2025. Samuel would be a low-risk, high-reward signing that would give the Falcons a chance to be a lot better on the back end than they were last year.
Los Angeles Rams
The Rams are more commonly linked as potential trade partners with the Dolphins for Ramsey, but what if they want to take a cheaper approach to upgrading their cornerback room? Samuel would cost maybe a quarter of what Ramsey would, and more importantly, wouldn’t require giving up a draft pick. The Rams don’t play in the Chargers’ division but they play in the same city and have some up-close familiarity with Samuel as a result, who also would likely welcome the chance not to have to move.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks have been poking around the free agent cornerback market to add competition or an upgrade for Josh Jobe, whose spot as the No. 2 starting outside corner is written lightly in pencil. They’ve shown more interest in bigger players with scheme familiarity like Rasul Douglas and Shaquill Griffin, but Samuel could also be an interesting fit.
Green Bay Packers
The Packers are an interesting fit to consider for Samuel for a couple of reasons. Current defensive passing game coordinator Derrick Ansley was Samuel’s position coach in Los Angeles for a stint, and the release of Alexander raises obvious questions about the state of the position in Green Bay. Even if the team’s starters are okay on paper, depth is a major issue if and when injuries strike.
There are more reasons the Packers probably won’t pursue Samuel, however. For one, the team claims it’s quite happy with the current options at the position. If that changes, there are some other options with more scheme familiarity that Green Bay might prefer, like Douglas. The Packers tend to have strict size thresholds for their cornerbacks. While they compromised those a little for Alexander, who like Samuel was also just 5-10, Alexander weighed 196 pounds compared to 180 for Samuel and had arms that were a full inch longer.
Still, the connection with Ansley is notable enough to list Green Bay here, and Samuel is a comparable enough player to Alexander — if you squint — to make note of.
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