Compensatory Issues

The NFL awarded 32 Compensatory Draft Picks to 16 teams on Friday. When the league implemented the process of handing out these picks in 1994 free agency was a brand new thing. The intent was to compensate teams for being outbid for their free agents. That's a grand intent but it always felt a bit counterproductive. The league is rewarding teams for not keeping their own players. Some teams have been using the process simply to collect picks. The Baltimore Ravens have received the most compensatory picks over the years. The Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots aren't too far behind them. Those are three of the best teams since the turn of the century. As such they are considered the smart teams. The models. They've turned the compensatory pick process into a trade. They are letting players go and letting the league determine the compensation. That compensation determination formula has so many holes. It's based on the salary, playing time, and postseason awards of the players on their new teams. That's faulty from the start. The one given in free agency is that teams overpay for the players. Why should a team get rewarded because another team decides to spend more than they probably should for a player? More often than not free agency spending sprees turn into mistakes. Just look at pretty much every offseason move by the Washington Redskins in the early 2000s. Or the Philadelphia Eagles' supposed "Dream Team" of 2011. The salaries tossed out during free agency are rarely a proper gauge of a player's value to their original team.

Clear flaws in the pick-giving process are revealed each year. Here are some from this year.

The San Francisco 49ers received a fourth round pick because they "lost" guard Alex Boone in free agency last offseason. The Minnesota Vikings signed Boone to a decent 4-year $26.8 million contract. From the outside, it didn't sound like the 49ers made much attempt to re-sign Boone so did they really lose him? That really doesn't matter. What does matter is that Boone was probably the second best player (after Joe Berger) on a horrible Vikings offensive line. The league's compensatory calculation decides that a decent contract and a mediocre, at best, player equate to a fourth round pick? I don't see it.

With four compensatory picks the Cleveland Browns were tied with three other teams for the most awarded this year. In 2015 the Browns had one of the most promising offensive lines in the league.

LT	Joe Thomas
LG	Joel Bitonio
C	Alex Mack
RG	John Greco
RT	Mitchell Schwartz

The Browns are experimenting with a decision-making front office arguably more focused on analytics than football. Those thinkers thought themselves right out of that talented line. They lost Mack to the Falcons and Schwartz to the Chiefs. There were reports last offseason that the Browns front office negotiated with their free agents as if they'd never done it before. They hadn't. The Browns are floundering more than ever while Mack was a integral force in the Falcons drive to the Super Bowl and Schwartz kept Alex Smith safe from pretty much every defender coming from the right-side of the line. The Browns could use players like that. They also lost promising, young players in Travis Benjamin and Tashon Gipson. A right-thinking football team keeps players like these. Especially when they have more than enough money to do so. They shouldn't be rewarded for losing them.

The Baltimore Ravens annually rake in Compensatory Picks. This year they only added one but it was the third most valuable pick awarded. A third-round pick. They received that pick because they lost guard Keleche Osemele, quarterback Matt Schaub, and defensive end Courtney Upshaw. They added tight end Benjamin Watson and safety Eric Weddle. Schaub never played as the backup quarterback in Atlanta. Upshaw was a rotational pass rusher in Atlanta. Osemele was a dynamite signing for the Oakland Raiders. Watson landed on injured reserve. Weddle had an excellent, bounce-back, Pro Bowl season with the Ravens. Basically, the pick calculation came down to the loss-gain of Osemele and Weddle with a splash of Upshaw. It's a tough call. Osemele's worth to the Raiders' offensive line and Weddle's worth to the Ravens' secondary is closer to a push than the landslide determination of a third round pick.

The loss of tackle Kelvin Beachum last offseason was a significant factor in the Pittsburgh Steelers receiving a third round pick this year. Beachum was just released by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The player was such a loss to the Steelers and he didn't stick with his new team for more than a single season. That should factor into the pick calculation.  

Perhaps my issues with the Compensatory Picks is that the Minnesota Vikings rarely get any. They simply don't play the game like the Ravens and others do. The biggest reason that the Vikings haven't received any extra picks in recent years is because their priority is re-signing their promising, young players. It seems like that should be the priority of every team. They spend 4-5 years developing these players why would they want to start all over with a draft pick that has far more unknowns than the player they just let walk out the door. Teams shouldn't be rewarded for this constant roster churn.
There's no denying the on-field success of some of the teams that have discovered a pick-generating system. That wasn't what the league had in mind in 1994. It was supposed to help teams that couldn't afford to keep all of their free agents stay competitive. The Compensatory Picks no longer serve that purpose. That's assuming that they ever did. Plus, they foul up the draft order. If the league wants to include another 32 college players to their annual draft they should just add an eighth round.