KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NFL’s formula for awarding compensatory draft picks is one of the most mysterious things in life. With that said, it’s still not likely the Kansas City Chiefs will receive any of the extra picks in this year’s draft.
The one thing we know about how the NFL awards the comp picks is that it’s based on net activity in unrestricted free agency from the previous year and not just for the players a team lost. The Chiefs last year lost a high-dollar free agent in center Rodney Hudson to the Oakland Raiders, but his departure was more than offset by the signing of wide receiver Jeremy Maclin from the Philadelphia Eagles to an even higher-dollar deal.
Hudson represents the Chiefs’ significant loss in free agency last year, Maclin the significant gain. The Chiefs also signed a lesser free agent, offensive lineman Paul Fanaika, from the Arizona Cardinals and lost smaller-dollar players like safety Kurt Coleman to the Carolina Panthers. Keep in mind the NFL takes into account only players whose old contracts had expired and were therefore unrestricted free agents. A player like wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who was released by the Chiefs last year and later signed with the Cleveland Browns, doesn’t factor here.
The trade of Hudson for Maclin, plus the smaller deals, probably won’t be enough to get the Chiefs one or more comp picks. Overthecap.com does a nice job of projecting which teams will get what picks and why. It predicts no extra picks for the Chiefs this year.
So, barring any trades, it looks like the Chiefs will have to make do with eight draft picks this year. They have their own pick in each of the seven rounds plus an extra in the fifth round acquired from Seattle in last year’s trade that sent safety Kelcie McCray to the Seahawks.
