Malik Mustapha has been fined $6,998 after the NFL reviewed a hit on Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the San Francisco 49ers' 32-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks. The play came on Seattle's final drive, with the game still hanging in the balance, and it was not flagged in real time.
That detail matters because the 49ers forced a turnover on downs to protect a three-point road win, but the final sequence also raised fresh questions about how the hit was handled on the field. The league later judged it to be a hit on a defenseless player.
What happened on the final drive?
Seattle had reached midfield with 1:13 remaining after a 35-yard completion to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. On the next play, Mustapha struck Smith-Njigba on a slant and jarred the ball loose.
The Seahawks then failed to move the chains. They had incompletions on second and third down before missing a fourth-down conversion by one yard. That sealed the 49ers' win and left Seattle just short at the end.
The NFL's postgame ruling
Although the hit was not penalized during the game, the NFL later fined Mustapha $6,998. The ruling confirms the league viewed the play as a hit on a defenseless receiver.
For the 49ers, the result still stands as a narrow win that moved them to 5-0. For Seattle, it dropped them to 3-3, with the late miss and the earlier hit both now part of the postgame discussion.
