The NFL has a secret and complex formula that they use to distribute draft picks at the end of rounds 3 through 7 of the NFL Draft. Even though the precise, exact method to the NFL’s madness isn’t disclosed to John Q. Public, there are several general elements, based on a team’s free agency activity, that can serve as a guideline to better understanding and predicting how and why your team has been gifted with extra picks -- and what picks down the road you can expect to receive.
How the NFL Draft’s compensatory picks work
The best teams in the NFL routinely acquire extra draft picks by letting their free agents sign with other teams. Here’s how compensatory draft picks work.Watch on YouTube | Subscribe to SB Nation on YouTube
Smart teams like the Patriots and Ravens use the system to their advantage, carefully planning out their offseason transactions with the implications they have on their future compensatory pick haul always in the back of their mind. And for good reason! There’s no shortage of great players that have been nabbed with these bonus selections. Guys you may have heard of such as Matt Hasselbeck, Mike Vrabel, Marques Colston and Brian Dawkins and Super Bowl heroes like David Tyree, Hines Ward, Malcolm Smith and Tom Brady.
So if a team plays its cards right in free agency, the term ‘Free Brady’ could have relevance beyond being a rallying cry for the star quarterback’s DeflateGate exoneration.
