The San Francisco 49ers have long since done an excellent job of working the compensatory pick system to gain extra ammunition in the draft.
They are primed to receive additional picks again in 2025, and will do so in part thanks to help from an old friend.
San Francisco, per Nick Korte of Over The Cap , will get a fifth-rounder for the loss of Sam Darnold and a seventh-rounder for the departure of blocking tight end Charlie Woerner.
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Yes, you read that correctly. The 49ers will get a fifth-round pick for Darnold, a backup for one season who started one game, a meaningless Week 18 game with the Los Angeles Rams, in the 2023 campaign.
San Francisco is poised to receive that gift after Darnold was signed to a one-year, $10 million contract by the Minnesota Vikings.
It's not clear whether Darnold will start in 2024, but the Vikings have paid him as if he will, the former third overall pick set to serve as a bridge to the quarterback Minnesota drafted 11th overall last month, J.J. McCarthy.
The architect of that deal was Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who worked in the 49ers' front office from 2013 to 2019, and it is difficult to see how he came to the conclusion that Darnold was worthy of that outlay or the opportunity to start for a Vikings team with the talent to be true contenders in the NFC following a season in which he barely played for the Niners.
But that will be of no concern to the 49ers, who will need all the additional resources they can get during a 2025 offseason in which they will likely give a lucrative contract extension to starting quarterback Brock Purdy.
Having the draft capital to be able to build a cheaper team around will be critical and, in that sense, Adofo-Mensah has given them a helping hand. The Niners can choose to spend the pick on a player or use it as a makeweight in a trade in next year's draft. It expands the menu of what they can do to keep the roster at the top of the NFL despite the likelihood of the 49ers parting with some key players to free up room for the Purdy contract.
The 49ers have experienced great fortune in finding a gem with the selection of Purdy with the final pick of the 2022 draft. Now, their former employee appears to have made the task of maintaining the roster around Purdy much easier with a questionable evaluation of his former backup.
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