San Francisco 49ers lose Draft advantage after NFL sanction due to payroll irregularities

The San Francisco 49ers can’t catch a break, not only did they lose the Super Bowl LVIII in overtime against the Kansas City Chiefs but now the NFL has sanctioned them for an administrative error, which will affect them in the 2025 draft.

The 49ers have accepted the NFL sanction without appeal

ESPN reported that after detecting errors in the 49ers’ accounting and payroll, the NFL penalized San Francisco with four spots for the 2024 Draft, dropping them from 131st overall to 135th overall.

“The NFL determined that the club would have remained under the salary cap at all times, regardless of the error, and there was no intent to circumvent the salary cap.”

Addin to the sanction, the league informed the 49ers that they would have to give up their fifth-round pick in the 2025 Draft.

The NFL noted that after a review of reports provided by all 32 teams, it detected accounting errors in San Francisco’s payroll at the end of the league’s 2022 operating year, resulting in failures to report accrued compensation for players.

San Francisco acknowledges its mistake and accepts their punishment

The San Francisco 49ers responded to the disciplinary action imposed by the NFL, something the California squad did not appeal and accepted the league’s punishment against them.

“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.”