San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and general manager John Lynch (right). Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

NFL docks 49ers a 2025 draft pick for payroll error

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 3/18/24

The San Francisco 49ers inadvertently cost themselves a draft pick in the 2025 NFL Draft for what the league called “an administrative payroll accounting error” on Monday.

San Francisco will forfeit its original fifth-round pick next year in addition to having its 2024 fourth-rounder dropped to the end of the round behind the compensatory picks (instead of that selection being No. 131 overall, it's now No. 135) as punishment for the team’s oversight.

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

Seems like a pretty harsh penalty for the #49ers. They ended the 2022 season with $5.23 million in cap room, so if they would have been cap compliant at all times it had to be less than a $5M error. In theory it should also reduce their cap room now if the league adjusts for it
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 18, 2024

Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFL found the error after a league review of the end of the 2022 season in which the 49ers reported inaccurate cumulative player compensation.

The league found that the 49ers never went over the salary cap at any point during that time and didn’t believe the team was trying to circumvent the cap in any way.

Despite the incident appearing to be purely accidental, the NFL bylaws mandate a punishment for any misrepresentation of player compensation or salary-cap figures, regardless of intentionality.

San Francisco now has just six picks in the 2025 draft after the fifth-round forfeiture, but will likely make up for it with compensatory picks (to be determined next spring) for defensive tackle Arik Armstead, defensive end Chase Young, edge-rusher Clelin Ferrell and quarterback Sam Darnold.

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