One of the most unknown aspects of the offseason for most football fans is how more than 32 picks end up being selected in certain rounds of the NFL Draft. Beyond the normal 32 from each team, the extra picks at the end of some of the later rounds are called “compensatory picks,” and for the first time in seven years, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were awarded one of those compensatory picks by the NFL and will have an extra pick in the seventh round, pick No. 254
32 compensatory choices in the 2018 @NFL Draft have been awarded to 15 teams pic.twitter.com/7so8TJfChd
— Michael Signora (@NFLfootballinfo) February 23, 2018
How the league awards compensatory picks has some subjectiveness to it, as it is not as definitive as a number system. But, the gist of it is: if a team loses more free agents than they sign in a certain offseason, they have a chance to be awarded extra draft picks, depending on how valuable said losses were individually, to cover their losses and maintain league-wide competitiveness.
Compensatory picks can range anywhere from third round picks to seventh round picks. How the league determines the value of a lost free agent depends on how much money they received in their contract, how much playing time they got with their new team and any individual accolades or postseason awards.
For the Bucs, this is how their compensatory seventh round pick came to fruition.
via OverTheCap.com
As you can see, the Bucs were awarded their compensatory pick via Bradley McDougald signing with the Seattle Seahawks and getting playing time when their secondary got banged up. Some Bucs fans thought Tampa Bay would get a higher compensatory pick when they lost quarterback Mike Glennon to such a big contract, but when Tampa Bay signed DeSean Jackson, that cancelled that higher pick out — see how this works?
There are more details that go into how compensatory picks are given out, as the league can only give out 32 per year and has to decide which ones to award — it’s not just the 32 highest ones.
But, for now, just know that the Bucs have an extra pick to work with in 2018.
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About the Author: Trevor Sikkema
This just gives us another rookie mini camp and maybe a training camp body to fill one of the many training camp roster spots. I highly doubt we end up with a player that even ends up on the practice squad let alone makes any kind of an impact for the Bucs at any point in that future players career. To bad it wasn’t a higher pick but i understand now why it was not because our biggest loss turned out to not even be that big of a loss and who we got to replace Glennon contract wise didnt… Read more »
At least it’s tradeable (if that’s a word) now. Looking forward to a time when we’ve drafted well enough and built enough depth that we’re getting 3rd’s and 4th’s instead of 7th’s.
If they hadn’t signed that bum Chris Baker they could’ve scored a 6th rounder too… What a waste!
If past is prologue the Bucs will bundle this pick and trade back into an earlier round. Comp picks can now be traded. If recent memory serves me well, I can’t remember a draft pick past the 5th round that has made a difference (help me out here recent memory is 4 or 5 weeks for an old dude like me, lol). Left guard Kevin Pamphile was a 5th round pick in 2014 and even though he’s a starter, some would say the jury is still out on Big Kev. I think this is the first comp pick the Bucs… Read more »
Tandy, i believe, and then undrafted kids like Humphries,etc.
I agree with your ‘trade up’ scenario, mac
I guess Im ok with trading out Mike Glennon and a possible 3rd rd compensatory pick in exchange for D.Jax.
Remember when PR kept telling us that Bucs didn’t want to deal Glennon because they felt they’d get a 3rd round compensatory pick? I never drank that Kool-Ade and said several times that was only if the Bucs didn’t sign any free agents. We should’ve traded him when we had the chance like the Patriots do.
*Ding Ding Ding*
Never “count” on compensatory picks. Especially when you’re a team with a lot of cap space.
It doesn’t happen to often but still have to hold out hope that we can get a 7th round pick like some of these guys; Gary Anderson, Marques Colston, Donald Driver, T.J Houshmanzedah, Brock Marion, Michael McCrary, Tom Nalen, SHANNON SHARPE.
So let me get this right; teams who are just over or at the top of the cap, are rewarded with extra draft picks when they have to let somebody go if they have needs elsewhere elsewhere or overpaid players?
Just another reason to refrain from signing free agents. Few times has that practice proved beneficial.
What to do is a real conundrum. The state of affairs Licht has left us with, at least as I see it, is: – We have one high quality DL starter who is about to run the tread off his tires. – We have one high quality OL starter who is currently playing out of position, and one other quality starter who is about to run the tread off his tires We could continue through the roster with just one quality starting coner (also at risk of running the tread off his tires), one decent RB starter etc. But sticking… Read more »
Agree 100% our offensive line needs to step up big time this upcoming season! I’m all for cutting J.R. Signing Justin Pugh (I mean his family just moved to Florida, probably Jags but still) and possibly Ja’Wuan James to play RT. Those two probably would go for 7-9 million for James and 9-11 million for Pugh. The Bucs have $71,196,463 million in cap space ($75,966,463 if we cut J.R) then taking out rookie estimated contracts of $7,987,744 we have $67,978,719. Leaves us plenty of space to sign those two guys to front loaded contracts and give Mike Evans a new… Read more »
Will, I wouldn’t look at all that Cap as bonus money as we are about to spend almost all of it now and the following 2 years on our own players. I think it’s time to stop what isn’t working which is paying multi millions to free agents not from our team. It’s time to trade our 1st round pick and obtain as many draft picks from it. We have too many needs and we can start by not drafting in the 1st round and have a few extra picks in rounds 2,3. Due to poor draftingthese last few years… Read more »
Re: Djax and Jameis
They have been working together on their own time this offseason according to reports.
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Go Bucs!!!!
Well hopefully they have. There were way to many times i had to walk out of the room after their misconnects.