Can someone please explain to me how this works? New England projected to get 2 3rd rounders, a 5th rounder (for Amendola) and a 7th rounder. For what? Because free agents didn't re-sign with them? Isn't that why free agents are free? Compensation for what? One Yahoo! Sports page described it like this: "one good measure of how well a team plans for the future is how well it does at getting compensatory picks. And the Rams and Patriots are expected to get the best compensatory pick compensation in the NFL in 2019... The NFL awards compensatory picks to players who lose free agents and don’t sign other free agents to replace them, and the more expensive the free agents you lose, the better the picks you get. The Patriots two third-round picks will be for losing Nate Solder and Malcolm Butler, while the Rams’ two third-round picks will be for losing Trumaine Johnsonand Sammy Watkins..." EDIT - UDPATE: Wikipedia states: "Compensatory picks[edit] In addition to the 32 selections in each of the seven rounds, a total of 32 compensatory picks are awarded to teams based on the players they lost and gained in free agency. The league defines a class of unrestricted free agents as "compensatory free agents ("CFA"). Teams that have lost more compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year receive between one and four picks somewhere in the third through seventh rounds.[67] Teams that gain and lose equal numbers of players but lose higher-valued players can also be awarded a single seventh-round pick. Compensatory picks are awarded each year at the NFL annual meeting which is held at the end of March; typically, about three or four weeks before the draft. Compensatory picks can be traded; this began with the 2017 NFL Draft.[68] The placement of picks is determined by a proprietary formula based on the player's average annual salary, playing time, and postseason honors with his new team, with salary being the primary factor. So, for example, a team that lost a linebacker who signed for $2.5 million per year in free agency might get a sixth-round compensatory pick, while a team that lost a wide receiver who signed for $5 million per year might receive a fourth-round pick. However, the NFL has never revealed the exact formula used to determine allotment of compensatory picks, though observers from outside the NFL have been able to reverse engineer it to some degree of certainty.[69]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_Draft#Compensatory_picks So who counts as a CFA? EDIT - UPDATE 2: Geez Louise..... https://www.hogshaven.com/2018/2/15/16986122/the-5-oclock-club-redskins-compensatory-picks-nfl I won't attempt (can't) summarise that. Basic points: "The compensatory draft pick system is very confusing, not the least because the rules for it are not written down anywhere. It’s a ‘secret’ system that the league owners administer for themselves. However, through close observation over a number of years, certain people have created a set of rules that seem to explain how the system works and are able to project compensatory picks annually with great accuracy." "1. To qualify for compensatory picks, you need to lose more (or better) free agents than you sign from other teams As the NFL explains, compensatory picks are awarded to teams that lose more or better compensatory free agents than they acquire. The number of picks a team can receive equals the net loss of compensatory free agents, up to a maximum of four. Compensatory free agents are determined by a secret formula based on salary, playing time and postseason honors. Not every free agent lost or signed is covered by the formula. In order to qualify for the comp equation, a player must have been a true Unrestricted Free Agent whose contract had expired or was voided after the previous season (i.e., he cannot have been released by his old team); [generally speaking,] he must sign during the UFA signing period."
That's the best explanation you are going to get. The NFL has never released the actual formula that is used to determine which teams get compensatory picks. That's why experts can only project or guess which teams get picks. Here's a basic overview: https://overthecap.com/the-basics-and-methodology-of-projecting-the-nfls-compensatory-draft-picks/
NSF is totally right, its a mostly secret formula that they've been using for a long time. Some people try to make estimates about what contracts will garner which picks, but you never know until they make the announcement. But the bottom line is that a team will get better draft picks when one of their players leaves as an unrestricted free agent, and signs a big contract with another team. You don't get any compensation if the player is cut, and the players have to sign by a certain date. And as it said, every UFA that the team signs then knocks the reward down.
