TheOak

I know I make things "not fun" lol, but it is what it is. Pay attention to the verbiage, there is either awarded or earned; earned means that there is a formula and you either earned the picks or not, awarded means the League decides who to give the picks to. Making the formula secrete is just a way for the league to mask the fact that they give the picks to whom ever they wish to.

When you insert the term "value" into a formula you make the entire thing subjective, when you make "Pro-Bowl" part of the value number you make the whole thing a joke because the Pro-Bowl selection process is a joke.

There is no "gaming the system", that is like saying that there is a 'tax loophole' there is no such thing you are either within the letter of the law are you aren't. With the NFL you are either in the leagues good graces or you aren't... The Saints remain on the naughty list.


What is a Compensatory Draft Pick?

These are draft picks in the 3rd through 7th round awarded to NFL teams who lost high value unrestricted free agents the prior year (this excludes "street free agents"). The actual formula used to determine the type of pick is not known, it's a closely guarded secret. The formula takes into account the lost player's performance, playing time, salary, and honors such as being named to the Pro Bowl.

In the off-season if a team signs more free agents than it loses, that team is not eligible for compensatory picks. Teams that sign and lose the exact same amount, but are deemed to have lost higher value players, are eligible for picks. It's important to note that compensatory picks can not be traded

jeanpierre

Indy is getting a fourth round pick for Donte Moncrief?

See, this is where I have a problem with the system - WAS let Cousins go and publicly stated they upgraded with the trade for KC QB Alex Smith...

And now they're getting a third round pick back for Cousins?

There shouldn't be a reward system in place for paring down your roster, letting players go in free agency - the incentive should be to field the best possible roster available...

It's equally troubling that the Loomis/Payton do not maximize this team's efforts better to utilize and develop roster depth via the draft and learn from New England, Baltimore, et al to get more draft picks...

...and not trade them all away in two-for-one player moves...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

Rugby Saint II

We just don't know how to play the game. It sounds like football and chess is Peyton's only games

BakoSaint

The formula is well understood. Many fan websites are able to project exactly which teams will get exactly which picks. There are occasional gray areas if say a players contract automatically voids due to a mutually triggered clause and then he sits out a year with a knee injury and then he signs as a free agent elsewhere, does something like that count as a loss for his team or not? Trades and cuts dont count. You can argue the formula should change, buts its not a conspiracy, its well known. A team may get a high pick for losing some scrub, but thats because another team gave the scrub a big contract. The league does not try to evaluate which players turned out to be good, it evaluates who had free agents lured away with money.

If we lose one of Kamara, Lattimore, Ramczyk, and Thomas when they are all free agents, we should try really hard to lose one more free agents than we gain that year. If we lose one more than we gain, we get a really high compensatory pick. If we lose Kamara and sign say Artis Payne to make us even, we get nothing, even though we lost a 1st round quality player and replaced with a 7th round, because total numbers are even. If we lose any of the big names we need to sign an extra player who was cut or acquire a player via trade for a late pick, so that we come out with a net loss in the accounting and don't lose a 3rd round or higher pick over adding Artis Payne or Ted Savage.

TheOak

That's a head scratcher for me.. if we lose big we should try to add to the loss to gain a possible 3rd round pick and hope it pans out?

Maybe I just do not place that much value in a compensatory pick and figure that we do not get them because we dont take huge talent losses that require an offset.

AsylumGuido

I'm with you there. Compensatory picks fall at the back-end of the 3rd round and are actually 4th rounders in a manner of speaking. Anything after the first two rounds are usually a crap shoot and for the most part reserve talent ... IF they make the cut long term.

I have always seen free agents as a known commodity and more dependable than the unknowns of draft picks.

ScottF

arrrgghhh
Davis and Coleman starting Sunday against Philly or the 97th pick in April?

It's all methodology. Loomis/ Payton prefer signing known quantities.
And let's face, we haven't exactly drafted well

lee909

Losing Bridgewater will only effect the 2020 comp picks, if we don't sign a comparable FA

lee909

Still handy to have though
You can take a punt on someone falling through injury or off field issues without touching your draft