We’re almost at the 2026 NFL Draft, where the San Francisco 49ers will have six draft picks to use at their disposal. Only three of those selections are actually theirs, as the 49ers were awarded three third-round picks for free agent departures.
So, the 49ers will head into the draft with their first-round pick (No. 27), second-round pick (No. 58), and four fourth-round picks (Nos. 127, 133, 138, 139). San Francisco is set up well heading into the draft after a busy offseason, where they made key
additions at wide receiver, linebacker, cornerback, defensive line, and offensive line. There could be starters emerging from all of those positions, with room to grow even more in the draft.
More notably, the 49ers haven’t really lost many key free agents this offseason. So far, the biggest departure that has signed elsewhere has been Kendrick Bourne, who got a two-year, $10 million deal from the Arizona Cardinals. Free agents like Jauan Jennings and Yetur Gross-Matos remain unsigned, but this offseason was far different than last year’s, when San Francisco saw a ton of veterans head elsewhere in free agency.
As a result, the 49ers are currently not projected to have any compensatory picks in the 2027 NFL Draft, which is quite unusual for the franchise. The three free agents who’ve signed elsewhere that would’ve counted towards the compensatory formula were Bourne, Jordan Elliott, and Spencer Burford.
Elliott signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the Tennessee Titans, while Burford signed a one-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders worth $3.255 million. All three of those contracts would’ve only brought back a seventh-round compensatory pick, but those picks were canceled out by San Francisco’s top three signings (Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, Vederian Lowe).
It seemed like the strategy this offseason for the 49ers was to maximize free agency, knowing that there weren’t going to be many valuable compensatory picks coming from San Francisco’s departure.
April 27th is the deadline for signings to still count against the compensatory formula. After that, teams are free to sign any free agent without being penalized, and I’d expect a majority of the remaining free agents to go off the board then.
That includes Jauan Jennings, who surprisingly hasn’t been signed yet and would likely have had the highest compensatory value of the 49ers’ free agents. So, because of how the offseason is played out, the 49ers are currently not projected to have any compensatory picks.
They also won’t be getting any for minority coach departures, despite Robert Saleh leaving to take the Tennessee Titans head coaching job, because the defensive coordinator wasn’t with San Francisco for at least two seasons. That leaves the 49ers with seven current selections in the 2027 NFL Draft.
The last time that San Francisco didn’t have a compensatory selection was the 2020 NFL Draft. That seems bound to happen again in the 2027 NFL Draft.
