To the surprise of everyone, the loss of LB Tremaine Edmunds doesn’t net the Bills a third-round comp pick
On Friday, the NFL announced the compensatory pick information for the 2024 NFL Draft. Within that announcement came word that the Buffalo Bills are to receive a pick at the back end of Round 4 (pick 133 overall, pick 34 in Round 4). This is the only comp pick the Bills received for the upcoming draft, as decided the the NFL Management Council.
Buffalo received pick 133 due to the loss of free-agent linebacker Tremaine Edmunds during free agency last spring. At the time, most believed that losing Edmunds — who was a former first-round draft pick of One Bills Drive — in free agency would net Buffalo a third-round compensatory pick in the 2024 draft.
There isn’t full transparency regarding how compensatory picks are awarded to teams because the NFL has never publicly revealed the exact process. As such, it’s led to an enormous amount of discussion this offseason. The basics are made available (and other outlets such as Over The Cap do significant leg work to fill in perceived blanks and to explain the formula).
The essential components of the process involves a formula based on salary, playing time, and postseason honors for each NFL player. Additionally, comp picks are awarded to organizations that lose minority employees who go on to become the head coach or primary football executive for another NFL organization.
In an appearance on “The Sports Bar” with 950AM in Rochester, NY Friday afternoon, ESPN Buffalo Bills beat reporter Alaina Getzenberg commented that considerations regarding playing time come into play when finalizing comp picks for those players lost — and that each team’s comp pick(s) slotting is influenced by other teams’ gains and losses.
For the Bills, who had three qualifying losses during the 2023 NFL free-agency period:
- Adding wide receiver Deonte Harty offset losing running back Devin Singletary
- Adding offensive guard Connor McGovern offset losing quarterback Case Keenum
- Compensatory pick No. 133 awarded for the loss of Tremaine Edmunds
Despite Edmunds signing a huge four-year $72 million contract with the Chicago Bears, it wasn’t significant enough to earn the Bills a third-round comp pick. Questions have also been raised concerning Edmunds missing time for the Bears last season due to injury.
At this point, enough mystery exists to question the veracity of any report simply because the NFL has created such a confounding situation. For example, this tweet (and the expanded thread) by Nick Korte, a contributor with Over The Cap, and self-anointed “Compensatory Picks Guy™.” The information is interesting but, in full disclosure, we can’t be certain these numbers and results are more accurate than the NFL Management Council.
My annual evaluation of my compensatory picks projection for 2024 will have to wait for several reasons.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024
But in the meantime, something is really, really wrong with the 3rd/4th round cutoff--to the point that I'm concerned that the NFL Management Council may have made an error.
Within that string of tweets, the following stands out most of all regarding the Buffalo Bills and Edmunds (who he mistyped as “Edwards”):
Three teams should be disappointed at this and ask for clarity from the NFL Management Council.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024
The 49ers (Garoppolo or McGlinchey) and Bills (Edwards) are the two that are well known: they were expected to get 3rd rounders for those departures instead of 4th rounders.
Compensatory picks are the hot topic right now, and not all of it’s for the right reasons. As Korte mentions, getting the information out now was done so in hopes that what he finds as erroneous can be rectified before the start of the 2024 league year and free agency on Wednesday, March 13.
What are your thoughts on the comp pick awarded to the Buffalo Bills in this year’s draft?