At some point during the annual league meetings in March, the NFL will hand out compensatory draft picks for the upcoming NFL Draft -- these draft selections are given to teams that lost "qualifying free agents" during the previous year's free agency. It's a complicated formula designed to help teams to receive something after losing free agents. Things like playing time, compensation and the playoffs are all applied to the formula.
Overthecap.com tried projecting compensatory picks, giving the Bengals a third-round selection for the loss of Michael Johnson... and that's it. Paul Dehner Jr. argues that the Bengals could/should receive a fifth rounder for Anthony Collins, while the team hopes for a fourth round pick.
Compensatory picks, which have been awarded since 1994, cannot be traded. Considering that most of Cincinnati's selections have come in the seventh round, they haven't had the best of luck finding players with their compensatory picks. A handful of the more successful selections include linebacker Landon Johnson, safety Chinedum Ndukwe, and wide receiver Andre Caldwell.
Cincinnati has been awarded with 24 compensatory picks in the team's history -- of which we could only determine 19. Of those that we actually determined, nine have been seventh rounders -- five were third-rounders, one came in the fourth-round and two from the sixth round. We'll update this list.
YEAR | ROUND | OVERALL | DRAFT PICK |
2014 | 6 | 212 | LB - Marquis Flowers |
2014 | 7 | 252 | CB - Lavelle Westbrooks |
2013 | 7 | 240 | OT - Reid Fragel |
2013 | 7 | 251 | C - T.J. Johnson |
2011 | 7 | 246 | RB - Jay Finley |
2010 | 3 | 96 | CB - Brandon Ghee |
2010 | 4 | 131 | LB - Roddrick Muckelroy |
2009 | 3 | 98 | TE - Chase Coffman |
2009 | 6 | 209 | RB - Bernard Scott |
2009 | 7 | 249 | DT - Clinton McDonald |
2009 | 7 | 252 | WR - Freddie Brown |
2008 | 3 | 97 | WR - Andre Caldwell |
2008 | 6 | 207 | TE - Matt Sherry |
2007 | 7 | 253 | DB - Chinedum Ndukwe |
2004 | 3 | 96 | LB - Landon Johnson |
2003 | 7 | 259 | DE - Elton Patterson |
1999 | 7 | 245 | QB - Scott Covington |
1998 | 7 | 222 | TE - Damian Vaughn |
1994 | 3 | 86 | LB - Steve Shine |