This is something I had never heard of before. Apparently the League tries to even out a team’s loss of quality players by awarding extra draft picks.

The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents up to a maximum of four. The 32 compensatory choices announced today will supplement the 224 choices in the seven rounds of the 2015 NFL Draft held on April 30-May 2 in Chicago.

Here’s a quick primer on NFL draft math:

• There’s 32 teams and seven rounds in the draft, which equals 224.
• A total on 256 players are on the auction block.
• The extra 32 picks make sure there are enough picks for the players available.

Of course draft picks are the black market currency of the sport. Some teams are pick hoarders. Others are more casual and work with what they have. It seems like every free agency deal over the last two weeks had some sort of pick involved.

All of these extra picks are in the 3rd-7th rounds. Usually after the fourth round teams are making picks because the have to. The strong players are gone by the third round.

Here's the list of who got what:

 Denver         4
 Kansas City    4
 Seattle        4
 Baltimore      3
 Houston        3
 Carolina       2
 Cincinnati     2
 Green Bay      2
 New England    2
 San Francisco  2
 Arizona        1
 Indianapolis   1
 Pittsburgh     1
 St. Louis      1

I’m not to happy with Seattle getting 4 picks. They’re already a strong team, and have made several big-name free agent signings recently. The NFC West is already the smash-mouth conference. This season looks to be bare-knuckle brawl.

To find out more read the NFL press release (PDF link).