Compensatory Picks and the Importance of May 7th
NFL teams have 4PM on May 7th circled on their calendars this year as the first day new free agents signed will not count towards the compensatory picks for the 2020 draft. For those of you who are not nerds like me, compensatory picks are the NFL’s reward to teams who sit out during free agency. Essentially, if you lose more players than you gain, the NFL rewards you extra picks in the draft. These picks start at the end of the third round and go until the end of the draft. The bigger the contract signed by the departing free agent, the higher the draft pick will be. These picks can be traded, and players signed that were previously cut do not negatively impact the formula. Since the Eagles signed players that were cut such as Malik Jackson and Vinny Curry, they do not take away from the picks gained by losing Nick Foles, Jordan Hicks, and Golden Tate. In short, former Eagles players who signed elsewhere during 2019 free agency will result in picks for the Eagles in the 2020 draft, as long as they are on the roster for the first 6 weeks of the season. Make sense? Good.
Over the Cap does a great job projecting what picks teams are owed. As of right now, the Eagles are projected to to receive a 3rd and 4th round pick in next years draft, per the table below:
- Top Available Free Agents that count towards formula: Ndamukong Suh, Ezekiel Ansah, Muhammad Wilkerson, Morris Claiborne
- Eagles Free Agents: Jay Ajayi, Stefen Wisniewski, Mike Wallace, Darren Sproles
I can say with confidence that the Eagles will not risk losing a 4th round pick because of Andrew Sendejo or L.J. Fort. So, if none of the Eagles free agents sign before May 7th, you can expect one of them will be cut during training camp. Teams will also need to fill holes on their roster that were not addressed during the draft. This is what the Eagles did last season when they signed Sproles after the draft because they did not come away with a running back. It is also fair to wonder if the Eagles re-signed Timmy Jernigan right before the draft this year because they had a hunch that the board at defensive tackle would not fall favorably to them. As detailed in our draft recap, the Eagles did not take one with any of their 5 picks.
Howie Roseman admitted that he would have liked to come out of the draft with more picks, so it is possible he will dip his toes back in the free agent pool once they do not affect the comp pick formula anymore. After the signing of Zach Brown (who does not count towards the formula after he was cut by the Washington football team), the Eagles roster this year appears to have no pressing needs – a welcome sight after last years running back situation – although they could still use depth at safety and defensive line.
The prediction here is that there will be a second, much smaller wave of free agency after the draft. The question is whether that happens before or after May 7th will be of minor concern for the Eagles. You can bet they are hoping one of their FAs will sign to cancel out the Sendejo/Fort signing and leave them with at least 3 compensatory picks going into the 2020 draft.
Discover more from Philadelphia Sports Nation
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categorized:Eagles