With their losses and gains in 2021 free agency, the Detroit Lions are in line to get three compensatory picks in the 2022 draft.
Without boring you to tears with the fine details, how the NFL awards compensatory draft picks to teams each year boils down to players added and lost in the previous year’s run of free agency. Performance and contract is laid into the equation, and no team can have more than four compensatory picks in a year.
Over The Cap has a detailed breakdown of the compensatory pick formula, for those who want the deep details. The site also has done a projection of 2022 compensatory picks, and for the Lions it boils down this way via cancellation charts.
Last offseason’s signings of Jamaal Williams and Breshad Perriman cancels out the two lowest-value players the Lions lost in 2021 free agency–kicker Matt Prater and cornerback/return man Jamal Agnew. That leaves them to receive compensatory picks for losing Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Jarrad Davis.
Where are the Detroit Lions’ 2022 compensatory picks?
For losing Golladay, Jones and Davis, the Lions will get a third, fifth and sixth-round compensatory pick respectively.
Losing Golladay, rooted in the big contract the New York Giants gave him, gives Detroit the highest comp pick in the league for the 2022 draft–estimated to be No. 97 overall at the end of the third round. Losing Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars gives them a pick estimated at No. 174 (fifth round) and losing Davis to the New York Jets gives them a pick estimated at No. 217 (sixth round).
The NFL usually releases the official list of compensatory draft picks in late February, after taking account of everything that could impact things. But the Lions are locked in to owning three of the first 34 picks in April’s draft, and they’re virtually sure to have five of the top 100 overall picks.