13 NFL Teams Receive 33 Compensatory Picks for 2016 NFL Draft

The NFL awarded 13 teams with a total of 33 compensatory picks for the 2016 NFL Draft.  NFL league rules state that teams receive compensation in way of compensatory picks through the yearly NFL draft if a team loses a high number of unrestricted free agents or better known as ‘compensatory free agents’ than they acquire in the previous year.  These picks are positioned between the third through sixth rounds in 2016 based on the value of the compensatory free agents lost, other years compensatory picks were granted through the seventh rounds, each year is different.

My 15 years in the league, the only members that really understood the compensatory formula was the NFL Management Council and the formula rules seem to change year to year.  What I gathered as a base rule was compensatory free agents are determined by a formula based on unrestricted free agents, salary, playing time which is the total number of snaps played in all three phases (offense, defense, special teams) and postseason honors in the way of All Pro team and Pro Bowl.  The catch was not every free agent lost or signed by a club was covered by this formula.

As explained by my friends at OvertheCap.com and AdamJT13 the mastermind behind breaking down the NFL’s compensatory system – “Each qualifying player has a value based on his contract, playing time and postseason honors, and that value corresponds to a round in the draft. In the compensatory equation, each qualifying player that a team signs cancels out a qualifying player that the team lost whose value is the highest in the same round. If there are no lost players remaining in that round, the signed player cancels out the lost player whose value is the next-highest. A signed player will cancel out a lost player whose value falls in a higher round only if there are no remaining lost players. After all of a team’s qualifying signed players have canceled out a lost player, the team can receive a comp pick for each qualifying player who remains. For example, consider a team that loses one qualifying player whose value falls in the third round and another qualifying player whose value falls in the sixth round but signs a qualifying player whose value falls in the third round. That team would receive a sixth-round comp pick because the signed player would cancel out the loss of the higher-valued player. If the signed player’s value were equal to a fourth-round pick or lower, however, the team would receive a third-round comp pick, because the signed player would cancel out the loss of the lower-valued player”.

A rule change approved by all 32 clubs in 2015, will permit compensatory draft picks to be traded starting 2017 NFL Draft.  For the 2016 NFL Draft Compensatory picks are not allowed to be traded.

Below are the compensatory draft picks for the 2016 NFL Draft, which will be held on April 28-30 in Chicago, IL

Below is the breakdown of compensatory free agents lost and signed in 2015 by the clubs that will receive compensatory picks in the 2016 draft.

Below is the 2016 NFL Team compensatory total picks.  With the addition of 33 compensatory picks this year, fans and 13 NFL clubs are treated to a 8^th round of the 2016 draft.

Listed below are the NFL club total summaries of compensatory draft picks dating back to 1994 through 2016