The NFL has a new rule that rewards teams for developing minority coaches and front office executives by giving those teams compensatory draft picks. But the league made a mistake in announcing today how that rule played out this year.
The NFL initially announced that the 49ers would receive two third-round compensatory picks in the 2021 NFL draft, one for losing personnel executive Martin Mayhew, who became G.M. in Washington, and one for losing defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who became head coach of the Jets. But that’s not how the rule works.
Instead, the 49ers will receive one third-round compensatory pick in 2021, one in 2022 and one in 2023. The rule says a team that loses two minority coaches or GMs gets an additional third-round pick in the next three drafts, but the league office apparently misread the rule and thought it resulted in the 49ers getting two third-round picks in this year’s draft.
The mistake with the extra pick to the 49ers also made the rest of the list of compensatory picks in error, as each subsequent pick was bumped one pick later than it should have been. A corrected compensatory draft pick list should be coming soon.