One of the more bizarre news items of the offseason came last Monday when it was revealed the San Francisco 49ers had been forced to forfeit a 2025 draft pick.
The 49ers were docked their fifth-rounder next year and had a 2024 fourth-rounder moved behind the compensatory selections in that round as punishment for a clerical error.
The NFL discovered administrative payroll accounting errors at the close of the 2022 league year. Those resulted in a misreporting of their cumulative player compensation. The league determined the 49ers would have stayed under the salary cap regardless of the error and there was no intent to circumvent the cap.
That explanation from the league offered little clarity into what actually happened, but John Lynch provided it at the NFL annual meetings on Monday, revealing the 49ers overpaid an unidentified player by $75,000. That player kept the money despite the Niners' efforts to recoup it.
“Part of the issue, we tried to recoup it, as opposed to reporting it,” Lynch said, per Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. “That’s where our culpability was. So we’ve learned from that. We eventually did report it, but we kind of went down the road of trying to recoup it. And the player did what you think he’d do.”
Lynch added that he and the 49ers believe the punishment handed down was not appropriate to the level of infraction.
"We have a difference of opinion on the severity of the discipline,” Lynch said.
"This was back in the COVID era, and there was a new system in place, and so it happened. We own our part. We’ve gone through a whole mitigation deal to remedy some of the issues that happened. But the league decided to impose that (penalty), so you take your medicine and move on.
“And we’ll be good. You hate to see a fifth-round pick next year (be forfeited). The fifth round has been good to us.”
The 49ers have unearthed a string of gems in the fifth round, including George Kittle, Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga and Deommodore Lenoir. It's therefore understandable that Lynch and the Niners are disappointed to lose a pick in that round next year, though San Francisco is set to get a fifth-round compensatory pick after Chase Young left in free agency.
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