After brief confusion over an error in the distribution of the NFL’s compensatory choices, the 49ers officially know that they will receive two compensatory choices in the 2021 NFL draft.
The NFL officially announced the compensatory selections on Wednesday. San Francisco received the pair they hoped to obtain – a choice in the third round for Robert Saleh to be hired as a Jets coach, and a choice in the fifth round as compensation for Emmanuel Sanders’ departure from the free agency.
Teams can be rewarded with build choices in two ways. When the free agents leave, there is a formula that determines whether the team will receive a choice for that player.
The other way is through new adjustments to the Rooney Rule, which gives teams compensatory choices if they have a coach or front-line member hired as a head coach or general manager. If a team has a minority coach hired as the head coach, they are given two choices in the third round, spread over two years. If they have a frontline minority member hired as a GM, they are given a choice of compensation.
In San Francisco, in this off-season, the two scenarios came after Saleh was hired by the Jets and vice president of players’ team Martin Mayhew was hired as GM of the Washington Football Team. That’s where the confusion seemed to originate from the NFL’s initial list of comp choices, which granted two selections from the third round to the 49ers.
Instead, they will receive one this year and one next year for hiring Saleh and then another in 2023 for hiring Mayhew.
The NFL corrected the error and officially gave 49ers general choice 102 and general selection 180. San Francisco is now set to enter the draft with 10 choices.