Compensatory Picks

The Compensatory Picks for the 2015 NFL Draft were announced on Monday. The awarding of these picks has been a thing since 1994. That's pretty much since free agency has been around. The purpose of the picks has always been to award teams for losing more than they gained in the free agency process each year. The NFL has a secret formula for determining which and how many Compensatory Picks a team should receive. The NFL's secrecy of the process is a mystery but some clever folk have figured it out quite accurately. The worth of each free agent is determined by the contract they sign. For whatever reason performance for the new team seems to carry less importance than the money that they earn. For that reason alone, the Compensatory Pick process is a joke. A perfect example of this occurred this year. The Cincinnati Bengals lost defensive end Michael Johnson and tackle Anthony Collins in free agency last year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed both to very healthy contracts. The Bengals received a third round pick for losing Johnson and a fourth round pick for losing Collins. Johnson and Collins performed at such a level in 2014 that the Buccaneers recently released both. The poor performances, always a better measure of value than pay, didn't keep the Bengals from collecting those picks. Not only that, the Bengals re-signed Johnson over the weekend. That's right. They are receiving a third round draft pick as compensation for losing a player that is now on their roster.

I suppose that dishing out Compensatory Picks is terrific if your team is receiving them. The Minnesota Vikings rarely receive these gifts so maybe I am a bit jaded. The Vikings have rarely been big spenders in free agency. They have also done a good job of keeping their younger, promising players. When they do let players go those players are often in their 30s (like Jared Allen and Kevin Williams last year) and those veteran players are downgraded in the great, secret Compensatory Equation. In this sense teams are rewarded for letting the players that they drafted and developed walk out the door after four or five years. That seems counterproductive to the team-building process. The Kansas City Chiefs were one of the teams that gained the most from the picks this year. Four picks. Over the past two years they have dumped nearly the entirety of their offensive line. And, it was a talented line. They let Branden Albert, Jon Asamoah, and Geoff Schwartz walk last year. They let Rodney Hudson walk this year. I just don't see the reasoning behind rewarding those decisions. The Denver Broncos also saw four picks come their way. That's astonishing in that they were one of the biggest spenders last offseason. They lost a lot of players but it was unanimous on all fronts that they gained more than they lost last offseason. That gain in talent got them an extra four picks in the draft.

I see the whole process as a joke. The biggest problem with the process is compensation being heavily based on the contracts that the players sign. Free agency is a spending spree. Teams get into bidding wars and the resulting contracts are rarely an accurate measure of anything other than one team's willingness to spend. The Bengals signing Michael Johnson and receiving a third round Compensatory Pick for losing him might start some discussion but I doubt that it's going anywhere anytime soon. So here, brought to you by a flawed system, are the 2015 Compensatory Picks and the free agent additions and subtractions that impacted them:

The following 2015 compensatory draft picks have been determined by the NFL Management Council:
ROUND CHOICE/ROUND CHOICE/ROUND OVERALL SELECTION TEAM
3 33-97 New England
3 34-98 Kansas City
3 35-99 Cincinnati
4 33-132 San Francisco
4 34-133 Denver
4 35-134 Seattle
4 36-135 Cincinnati
4 37-136 Baltimore
5 33-169 Carolina
5 34-170 Seattle
5 35-171 Baltimore
5 36-172 Kansas City
5 37-173 Kansas City
5 38-174 Houston
5 39-175 Baltimore
6 33-208 Denver
6 34-209 Seattle
6 35-210 Green Bay
6 36-211 Houston
6 37-212 Green Bay
6 38-213 Carolina
6 39-214 Seattle
6 40-215 St. Louis
6 41-216 Houston
6 42-217 Kansas City
7 33-250 Denver
7 34-251 Denver
7 35-252 Pittsburgh
7 36-253 New England
7 37-254 San Francisco
7 38-255 Indianapolis
7 39-256 Arizona

The compensatory free agents lost and signed in 2014 by the clubs that will receive compensatory picks in the 2015 draft:
ARIZONA
Lost: Antoine Cason, Karlos Dansby, Jim Dray, Andre Roberts
Gained: Ted Ginn, Ted Larsen, Jared Veldheer
BALTIMORE
Lost: Ed Dickson*, Corey Graham, James Ihedigbo, Arthur Jones, Michael Oher
Gained: Darian Stewart
CAROLINA
Lost: Ted Ginn, Domenik Hixon, Brandon LaFell, Michael Mitchell, Captain Munnerlyn
Gained: Antoine Cason, Jerricho Cotchery, Ed Dickson
CINCINNATI
Lost: Anthony Collins, Michael Johnson
Gained: None
DENVER
Lost: Robert Ayers, Zane Beadles, Eric Decker, Jeremy Mincey^, Knowshon Moreno,
Shaun Phillips, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Wesley Woodyard
Gained: Emmanuel Sanders, Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward
GREEN BAY
Lost: Evan Dietrich-Smith, James Jones, C.J. Wilson*
Gained: None
HOUSTON
Lost: Joe Mays, Earl Mitchell, Antonio Smith, Ben Tate
Gained: Kendrick Lewis
INDIANAPOLIS
Lost: Antoine Bethea, Donald Brown, Kavell Conner
Gained: Arthur Jones, Hakeem Nicks
KANSAS CITY
Lost: Branden Albert, Jon Asamoah, Quintin Demps, Tyson Jackson, Akeem Jordan^,
Kendrick Lewis^, Dexter McCluster, Geoff Schwartz
Gained: Joe Mays, Vance Walker
NEW ENGLAND
Lost: LeGarrette Blount, Dane Fletcher, Brandon Spikes, Aqib Talib
Gained: Brandon Browner, Brandon LaFell
PITTSBURGH
Lost: Ryan Clark, Jerricho Cotchery, Evander Hood, David Johnson*, Emmanuel
Sanders, Al Woods
Gained: LeGarrette Blount, Michael Mitchell, Arthur Moats, Cam Thomas
SEATTLE
Lost: Brandon Browner, Breno Giacomini, Chris Maragos^, Clinton McDonald, Paul
McQuistan^, Golden Tate, Walter Thurmond^
Gained: None
SAN FRANCISCO
Lost: Tarell Brown, Anthony Dixon, Donte Whitner
Gained: Antoine Bethea
ST. LOUIS
Lost: Kellen Clemens, Shelley Smith, Darian Stewart, Chris Williams
Gained: Kenny Britt, Alex Carrington, Shaun Hill
*Did not qualify for a compensatory pick, 32 picks already awarded.
^Compensatory pick not awarded. Maximum of four already allocated.