Fred Warner fined $65,673 for 2 hits vs. Commanders

Neither play cost the 49ers 15 yards on Monday night. Both cost Warner money once the league office went back over the tape.

Mike Garafolo

@MikeGarafolo

#49ers LB Fred Warner was fined $65,673 for two instances against the #Commanders — $17,911 for a hit on TE Chig Okonkwo (flag was thrown then picked up, with ESPN broadcast saying it should’ve stayed a penalty) and $47,762 for use of the helmet here that wasn’t flagged.

That breakdown has the hit on Commanders tight end Chig Okonkwo at $17,911. A flag came out on that one and then got picked up, even though the ESPN broadcast said it should have stood. The $47,762 then goes to a separate use-of-the-helmet play that nobody flagged at all. The other big insider report on the fines splits the money a different way.

Tom Pelissero

@TomPelissero

The NFL fined 49ers LB Fred Warner $65,673 for two unnecessary roughness violations last week — including $47,762 for this hit on Commanders TE Chig Okonkwo. Officials threw a flag on the play, but then picked it up.

That version puts the $47,762 on the Okonkwo hit, and the league's own discipline summary, as relayed by ProFootballTalk, lists $47,762 for hitting a defenseless player and $17,911 for using the helmet to initiate contact. So which play costs what depends on who you read. Nobody disputes the $65,673 total, or that officials on the field got both plays wrong in Warner's favor. Either way the bigger fine went to a hit with no flag on it.

For Warner, this is becoming a pattern. It is the second time this season the league has fined him twice in 1 week. After the Week 3 win over Arizona he got hit for $41,793: $23,882 for use of the helmet and $17,911 for a hip-drop tackle. That brings him to $107,466 across 4 violations through 6 games, and Spotrac puts his career fine total at $170,857. That is a lot of money for the guy who runs the middle of that defense.

Then there is the guy who didn't get fined. Mustapha caught Stefon Diggs in the same game on a hit the ESPN booth also thought should have been a penalty, and plenty of people expected the league to fine him for it. It didn't.

ProFootballTalk

@ProFootballTalk

Fred Warner was fined for hit on a defenseless player, Malik Mustapha was not. t.co/Dx6r8TVfYP

That matters more than the money. Mustapha had already been fined for an uncalled hit on the final drive against Seattle, and the league's escalating discipline for hits on defenseless players ends in a 1-game suspension. Skipping a fine for the Diggs hit keeps him at 1 foul toward that line instead of 2. Warner, meanwhile, now has a defenseless-player fine and a hip-drop fine on his record, and both rules come with suspension thresholds. San Francisco's 2 best hitters are on a short leash with the league, and both have already had their bad hits caught on tape after the fact. Expect the 49ers to get this fine-tuned before the next uncalled shot turns into a game on the bench.