Compensetory Picks

[bengal4life]

I know it's a little early but If we don't resign Smith, Willy, or Steinbach next season will we get picks in next years draft for losing veterans to free agency? Does anyone know how that works? I know last year Baltimore got something like 4 extra picks in the draft and Piss. got 2 picks.

[JPW]

It is a bit of a mystery to me just how the league determines compensatory picks, but it has to do with losing more/better free agents than you gain.

I do know this, any compensatory picks that we might receive would be in the following year's draft (2008).

[HoosierCat]

If the Bengals were to lose multiple quality players to FA (think guys like Willie and/or Eric, or Justin Smith) they would stand to gain some comp picks (awarded starting in round 3 and going all the way through 7). But those would also depend on whether or not we signed any quality FAs. From what I understand, if you lose, say, 2 good FAs, you would be eligible for 2 comp picks; if you lost 2 and signed 1 new FA, then you would be eligible for 1. The max number of comp picks, at least under the old CBA, was 4.

The exact formula through which who you lose translates into what comp pick you get when is a secret. I've always thought that basically meant the NFL powers-that-be just sort of pulled it out their collective butts every year. But supposedly it has to do with performance, salary, and contract length, among other factors.

[kurgan74]

As a result I hope both Matt Schoebel and Jon Kitna light it up this year.

[derekshank]

Does anyone know a website where you can find when players contracts end? I'm constantly going on memory... and would like to take a look at it if it's in writing somewhere.

[HoosierCat]

Supercat over at bengalsjungle.com keeps a pretty good record of contracts and salaries:

http://bengalsjungle.com/players_salaries.html