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Free agency is still a long ways away from over, but it’s worth noting that as things stand currently the Saints would possibly be in line for a compensatory draft pick.

A complex review process that tallies all the NFL free agents gained and lost by each team would ultimately determine if and which round the Saints would earn that pick in.

The NFL doles out 32 compensatory picks in the NFL draft each season, rewarding teams who lost more free agents than they signed in any free agency period.

The “free agency period” technically ends on June 1st for the sake of this exercise, but of course teams are still able to fill out their roster with unsigned NFL free agents at any point after that date. They just don’t count as additions in the official “free agency period”.

As things stand the Saints have signed three unrestricted free agents from other teams this offseason in Jairus Byrd, Champ Bailey and Erik Lorig.

They also signed Marcus Ball from the CFL. Any free agents the Saints have retained that were on their roster last season, like Zach Strief as an example, do not factor into this equation.

The free agents they’ve lost to other teams thus far are: Charles Brown (Giants), Brian de la Puente (Bears), Malcolm Jenkins (Eagles), Jed Collins (Lions) and Tom Johnson (Vikings).

That’s a total of five players, but it’s unlikely Johnson would figure into the equation either because the NFL weighs the value of the free agent lost (and gained). Brown, de la Puente, Collins and Jenkins were all starters, though, so you figure that even if the NFL doesn’t weigh Johnson as a significant loss the Saints currently have replaced 4 lost free agents with 3 gained ones.

Will Smith, Lance Moore, Roman Harper, and Jabari Greer do not factor into this equation because they were all willingly released by the team while under contract. Ditto Darren Sproles who was traded, so he was not lost in free agency.

Saints currently eligible for a 2015 compensatory draft pick | The Saints Nation

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