The formula the NFL uses to decide who receives compensatory picks has never been fully revealed by the league, which leads to rampant speculation by fans with every free agent signing. The only thing we know for sure is that the league only hands out 32 comp picks based on team’s free agent gains and losses. The guys at Over The Cap probably do the best job of deciphering what will happen on a year to year basis, but even they get some things wrong from time to time.
But now the league itself has made an error and it’s a mistake that benefits the Chicago Bears!
The miscalculation also benefitted the New England Patriots (of course), but the selection they picked up was actually owed to them.
With the Pats getting their rightful pick back, Chicago should have lost their final sixth-rounder since that was the 33rd comp pick awarded this year. The correct thing to do would have been to strip it from the Bears, but maybe Chicago’s luck is starting to turn around.
Mark Daniels of The Providence Journal got the specifics about what went down after speaking with Michael Signora, who is the NFL’s Senior Vice President of Football & International Communications.
“The inclusion of a 33rd compensatory selection in this year’s Draft resulted from a correction by the Management Council to the calculation of average yearly compensation,” Signora told the Providence Journal.” As a result of the correction, the Patriots were awarded the first compensatory pick in Round 5, and the Falcons’ first compensatory selection in Round 5 has moved down two slots. By agreement with the NFLPA, the Bears will retain their compensatory selection at the end of Round 6, previously the 32nd awarded, now the 33rd.”
So the NFL and the NFLPA decided since it was already announced, that they’d just let the Bears keep their extra pick. Maybe it was pity, maybe they figured ‘it’s just a 6th-rounder, so who cares.’ or maybe the Football Gods are finally starting to look out for the Bears.
Sure this is a miniscule break, but when was the last time the Chicago Bears caught a break at all?