The 49ers have 10 picks heading into Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft, including a compensatory third-rounder earned under NFL Resolution JC-2A after losing DeMeco Ryans and Ran Carthon to head coach and general manager jobs. San Francisco keeps developing talent, and the league keeps taking it.
The San Francisco 49ers are heading into Day 2 of the 2025 NFL draft with 10 picks. On Day 2 alone, they have three: their second-round pick, third-round pick, and another third-round pick. That last pick is a compensatory pick.
And that is a pick the 49ers received thanks to NFL Resolution JC-2A. You know it as that rule that says, “if the league hires a head coach or general manager from another team who is a minority candidate, the team they were on is compensated with two third-round picks — one awarded in each of the next two NFL Drafts following the hire.”
In this case, the 49ers had two people fit the bill in 2023: defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who left to be the head coach of the Houston Texans, and executive Ran Carthon, who went to be the General Manager of the Tennessee Titans.
That’s two departures and two sets of two third-round picks.
But that was 2023, and that year’s draft and 2024’s draft have come and gone. Why are we using them now in 2025? Well, because the 49ers lost two minority candidates in the same year, the NFL awarded them the four picks; however, so they aren’t stuffed with picks in a given draft, one of them — the pick tied to Ryans’ departure — was delayed until 2025. That pick is what we will see today.
It’s a better deal for the 49ers than it was before. This situation happened in 2021, with Robert Saleh’s first departure to the New York Jets and Martin Mayhew going to the Washington Commanders. The 49ers only received two third-rounders, not four, spread across two years. After 2022, the league adjusted the rule where each qualifying hire (for head coach or general manager) earns a separate set of two third-round picks.
Here’s the full list of hires the 49ers have had under the program:
- Robert Saleh — Hired as New York Jets Head Coach (2021)
- Martin Mayhew — Hired as Washington Commanders General Manager (2021)
- Mike McDaniel — Hired as Miami Dolphins Head Coach (2022)
- DeMeco Ryans — Hired as Houston Texans Head Coach (2023)
- Ran Carthon — Hired as Tennessee Titans General Manager (2023)
So basically, the 49ers’ strategy (if you want to call it that) is to develop great people, lose them to other teams, and cash in third-round picks. Rinse, repeat. And now, the same thing is true for DeMeco Ryans: The 49ers get their second of two third-round picks.
Bottom line is: the 49ers develop talent, and the NFL seems to like poaching that.