San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

49ers lose draft pick for unusual reason

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated 3/18/24

The San Francisco 49ers are being docked a draft pick for an unusual reason.

The NFL announced Monday that the 49ers are being knocked down on the fourth round of the 2024 draft and will also lose their 2025 fifth-round pick. The league said it discovered an administrative error in the team’s payroll at the end of the 2022 league year.

The 49ers are being knocked down in the draft order – in the 4th Rd – and will lose next year’s 5th rd pick after the NFL found administrative payroll accounting errors at the close of the 2022 league year that resulted in a misreporting of their cumulative player compensation.

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) March 18, 2024

The league stated that the 49ers never would have gone above the salary cap even if the numbers had been correctly calculated and that no attempt was being made to intentionally circumvent the cap. In other words, it was an honest accident, albeit one the NFL is still punishing the Niners for.

Said the 49ers in a statement: “We take responsibility and accept the imposed discipline from the NFL due to a clerical payroll error. At no time did we mislead or otherwise deceive the League or gain a competitive advantage in connection with the payroll mistake.”

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) March 18, 2024

While seemingly minor, the 49ers have landed the likes of George Kittle, Dre Greenlaw, and Talanoa Hufanga in the fifth round of previous drafts. They no doubt would have preferred to keep that selection. The good news, however, is they’ll probably be able to make up for it in other ways.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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