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Chase Young's free agency departure set to ease San Francisco 49ers' pain over costly mistake

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Nicholas McGee | Last updated 3/18/24

Chase Young is no longer a member of the San Francisco 49ers, with his departure for the New Orleans Saints something for which the franchise had clearly long since prepared.

Young, per ESPN's Adam Schefter, is signing a one-year, $13 million deal with the Saints, the former overall second overall pick landing an impressive payday despite struggling to make an impact following his trade from the Washington Commanders to the 49ers. The 49ers sent a clear signal that they had no plans to re-sign Young last week when they addressed the edge position with the signings of Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos.

His time with the Niners saw Young record only 2.5 sacks in the regular season and he struggled markedly against the run in the playoffs, though he did have a sack of Patrick Mahomes in San Francisco's Super Bowl defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.

But the 49ers will be grateful for the contract given to Young by the Saints, as it puts them in line to receive at least a compensatory fifth-round selection in next year's draft.

Per Nick Korte of Over The Cap, that pick will likely become a fourth-rounder if Young plays around half of New Orleans' defensive snaps in 2024.

Just after they were stripped of a 2025 5th round pick, the 49ers get on the 2025 compensatory picks board a borderline 4th/5th rounder for Chase Young going to New Orleans for $13M.

To get the pick to the 4th round, Young likely needs to play at least half of the snaps in 2024. https://t.co/P2qt5J9iAb
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 18, 2024

The significance of landing that pick is increased because of news handed down by the NFL on Monday that, in addition to having this year's fourth-round pick moved back four spots, the 49ers would forfeit their 2025 fifth-rounder as punishment after the league discovered administrative payroll accounting errors at the end of the 2022 league year.

Those errors resulted in a misreporting of their cumulative player compensation, though the Niners would have remained under the salary cap regardless of the mistakes.

Getting at least a fifth-rounder in return for losing Young will ease the pain of forfeiting their own pick in 2025. The 49ers were clearly not diligent enough in their accounting to end 2022, but their deliberate approach to roster building and careful attention to the ins and outs of the compensatory pick formula has ensured the impact of that mistake isn't as severe as it might have been.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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