On the same day the Bucs signed wide receiver Mike Evans, Jason Licht’s first ever draft pick as general manager, to a two-year contract extension, Tampa Bay received some more good news in the form of a compensatory draft pick.

The NFL awarded Tampa Bay a sixth-round compensatory draft pick, which was a bit of a surprise, as the team had been expecting a seventh-round draft pick instead. Tampa Bay now has the 45th overall pick in the sixth round and pick No. 220 overall. ESPN’s Adam Schefter posted the list on X.

With this compensatory selection, the Bucs now have seven draft picks in 2024. The team traded away its fifth-round pick last year.

The league doles out compensatory draft picks to teams that lose more in free agency the previous season than they gain. It’s a specific formula that involves the total number of free agents signed and lost in free agency, and also factors in the size of the contracts those players received in the equation.

OverTheCap.com, which is one of the best in the business at projecting compensatory draft picks, projected Tampa Bay receiving a seventh-round comp pick earlier this year. The Bucs lost more free agents than they gained in 2023. Tampa Bay lost cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting to Tennessee, defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches to the New York Giants and safety Mike Edwards to Kansas City, while adding defensive tackle Greg Gaines and quarterback Baker Mayfield.

The contracts of Murphy-Bunting and Nunez-Roches equaled out the contracts for Gaines and Mayfield. The team’s sixth-round compensatory pick was the result of losing Edwards, who signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Chiefs.

Bucs Get More Value With Sixth-Round Compensatory Pick

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Adam Slivon/PR

The highest league-issued compensatory draft picks occur at the end of the third round, and the NFL awarded 34 comp picks on Friday. Four teams – Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers – received third-round compensatory picks.

The rest of this year’s compensatory picks were awarded by the league in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.

Because the Bucs got a sixth-round pick for Mike Edwards instead of a seventh-rounder, Tampa Bay will be selecting at least 32 picks higher with its compensatory selection.

This year the Bucs have picks in the first, second, third and fourth rounds, two sixth-rounders and a seventh-round selection.