Bear Digest

What Bears Can Expect in Compensatory Picks for 2025 Draft

According to NFL.com, it's a case of the usual suspects gaining a big number of compensatory draft picks for the 2025 draft with the Bears among those shut out.

Gene Chamberlain

Packers president Mark Murphy speaks at a press conference for the 2025 NFL Draft, which will be in Green Bay.
Packers president Mark Murphy speaks at a press conference for the 2025 NFL Draft, which will be in Green Bay. / Sarah Kloepping/USA TODAY
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With the draft in the rear-view mirror and any free agency defections after April 29 not counting in the mix, the compensatory picks for next year's draft can be estimated.

According to NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein, the Bears still have not reached a point with their roster where they are reaping in extra picks. The Bears will again get no compensatory picks. It's going to take some more good drafts to start receiving picks as compensation for departing free agents.

They received none in the recently completed draft, as well.

Then again, this is only a projection but it is one based on the facts of how the league has picked compensatory picks in the past.

For those who have been trying to figure out for years the exact way the league determines who gets what, Zierlein does as good a job as anyone has of laying it out.

WHAT BEARS SEE CALEB WILLIAMS HAS THAT JUSTIN FIELDS DIDN'T

Of course, he's not giving out the exact formula used but the loss of free agents but teams receive the picks in Rounds 3-7 according to free agents lost basedon those players' average salary per year (APY), snap count and postseason awards. He adds that the final determination hasn't obviously been made because the play level of those who left can alter everything during the coming season.

Also, he's quick to point out the rule put into effect giving teams two third-round picks in successive years for any minority member who is hired as a head coach or GM with another team.Some

The Ravens and Cowboys are getting four comp picks, the Chargers, Dolphins and 49ers three each and the Bills, Browns, Chiefs, Raiders and Seahawks receive two picks.

HOW SECOND WAVE OF ANALYSIS SEES BEARS DRAFT

Some of the usual teams are at the top again and it all begs the question whether this system actually works for what it was intended to fix. What it seems is some teams have figured out how to game the system and the rich get richer as a result.

The 49ers still are collecting third-rounders for DeMeco Ryans and Ran Carthon leaving for jobs with Houston and Tennessee respectively.

Teams signing free agents will offset losses, so the Bears signing Keenan Allen, Gerald Everett and D'Andre Swift can be big negatives in their formula.

Of course, players traded like Justin Fields, or cut, like Eddie Jackson and Cody Whitehair, are not parts of this formula.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.