The San Francisco 49ers' plans for next month's draft have likely been close to finalized for some time, but they'll have to alter them somewhat after the NFL handed down a punishment for a bizarre error by the franchise.
It was announced by the league on Monday that the 49ers have had their original fourth-round pick (131st overall) — they have another from the Trey Lance trade with the Dallas Cowboys and a compensatory selection in the round — moved behind the compensatory selection to 135 overall.
On top of that, the Niners have forfeited their fifth-rounder in the 2025 draft. This punishment comes after the league discovered administrative payroll accounting errors at the close of the 2022 league year. Those resulted in a misreporting of their cumulative player compensation. The NFL determined the 49ers would have stayed under the salary cap regardless of the error and there was no intent to circumvent the cap.
In a statement, the 49ers said: "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.”
The 49ers probably won't lose any sleep over their fourth-rounder moving back four spots, particularly as their compensatory selection will move up to 132 as a result.
They will, however, be disappointed to lose next year's fifth-rounder given their track record in that round.
San Francisco has landed two All-Pros in the fifth round in the Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch era. The Niners picked tight end George Kittle in 2017 and safety Talanoa Hufanga in 2021. On top of that, starting linebacker Dre Greenlaw was a fifth-rounder in 2019 while starting cornerback Deommodore Lenoir was selected eight picks before Hufanga.
They will not have the chance to find a hidden gem at that point in next year's draft. Still, with 10 picks this year, the 49ers will hope to hit on enough to minimize the impact of not having that selection.
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