And there’s further proof that free agency is a game intended for men in their 20s.
Several readers have expressed consternation regarding the fact that the Steelers received only a fifth-round pick as compensation for the departure in 2008 of Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca.
We’ve seen in the comments assertions that the rules cap the compensatory pick at that level when the departing free agent older than 30.
Per John Clayton of ESPN.com, that’s precisely the case.
Responding to a reader in a Q&A column, Clayton wrote the following: “[T]he Steelers asked the same question at the owners’ meeting. What they found out is that a departing free agent older than 30 can’t net anything better than a fifth-round choice. They were banking on a third, too. They received the max value. They simply didn’t know the rule that has been there for a few years in the compensatory formula.”
Though it’s unknown whether the Steelers would have opted to use the franchise tag on Faneca if they’d known that they’d only get a fifth-round selection this year for letting him walk, it seems unfair that the league would use age-based restrictions on such matters.
If as in Faneca’s case the player is regarded by another team as sufficiently valuable to result in a five-year, $40 million deal, the fact that the player is on the wrong side of 30 shouldn’t matter.
Meanwhile, we’ll wait for the folks who are convinced that the league office is in the tank for the Rooneys to explain that the Steelers got the shaft this time in order to throw the dogs off the scent.
Rules Capped Steelers' Compensatory Pick At A Fifth-Rounder
Posted by Mike Florio on March 31, 2009, 8:01 PM EDT
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47 Responses to “Rules Capped Steelers' Compensatory Pick At A Fifth-Rounder”
Sweet now that our FO knows this we can let most of our worthless OL go to free agency and get a ton of 3rd rounders!!!
You’re saying the league had no choice which implies that there was no shafting or scent throwing going on. Not very controversial.
The Steelers should know the rules. Ignorance is no excuse. And the player’s age should matter. Pittsburgh bought him when he was young and decided not to pay him when he got old. That’s on them.
It all depends if you look at per year salary in terms of determining compensatory picks or you look at total value. Had Kurt Warner become a free agent this year and signed something like the 2 year 20 million dollar deal he did sign his per year salary would be extremely high and he should net a 3rd rounder, but since he only has a year or two left in the tank he is not worth as much as a guy like Michael Turner who can contribute for many years even if he gets a much smaller per year salary.
It’s not the AGE of the player, Fiorio.
It’s 10 year vets who are inelligible to count as more than a 5th rounder.
If a 30 year old was only an 8 year vet, a team can get a 3rd for him.
myusernamestinks says:
March 31st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
The Steelers should know the rules. Ignorance is no excuse. And the player’s age should matter. Pittsburgh bought him when he was young and decided not to pay him when he got old. That’s on them.
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That’s great and all, but it’s hard to know the rules to a secret formula. Moron.
Now we know why they kept it secret, because it is stupid and doesn’t make sense.
With all the pissing and moaning going on I’d swear this qa a Browns story.
Go Browns! Fire Boygini and Kok-in-us
Eh, a 5th round pick is just bonus when you consider that Faneca left and the Steelers won the Super Bowl without his “veteran leadership.”
Chris Kemeoatu wasn’t much of a dropoff; Faneca seemed to screw up more in his last year in Pittsburgh a lot more than he actually helped, though with Sean Mahan on his right side, there was that much bigger of a hole to block.
As far as Faneca goes, though,I wonder how he enjoyed the playoffs…
BringingTheWood, did you read the piece? At least the part about them simply not knowing the rule that has been in place for a few years? If an elf like John Clayton knows, how can it be secret? Douchebag.
The Rooneys don’t know the rules?
They must be doing some of that HGH they’ve been passing around to their players. Don’t do your own stuff, man!
Or maybe (start the brogue) a wee little leprechaun came up and knocked em’ in the head with a shillelagh.
(For all you Pittsburgh residents with a pack of smokes rolled up in one sleeve and the other sleeve cut off scratching your heads wondering what the hell I’m refering to, which is about half of you, thats a reference to the country of Ireland to which Rooney was just appointed ambassador)
It’s tough to be funny in Pittsburgh.
I’m surprised the league didn’t bend the rules for the Steelers like the officials do.
Florio, you and Clayton are about a week late with this story. This was first reported Tuesday or Wednesday of last week.
BradyGazelle…
You must be a Seattle Seahawk or Baltimore Raven fan
age actually has nothing to do with it “per se”
it is a player who has played for the team over 10 years (who is obviously going to be over 30)
so yes age comes into it from the back end, but I’m pretty sure their thinking is that if you had a guy on your team for 10 years, whats the most you could possibly still expect for the guy to play productively, 3 years? Does a 3rd rounder compare to that?
eh debatable, but a 5th is more comparable.
but then again, I think the compensatory picks are all a waste of time. so theres my 2 cents
no one cares.
Seems like too mechanical a rule, becomes players at certain positions (See, Lineman,Offense) play on average a bit longer than other more speed-based positions.
If the Steelers didnt know this rule, then its probably safe to assume no one did, though it really wasnt goin to affect the situation, they werent paying 8M for him
“Meanwhile, we’ll wait for the folks who are convinced that the league office is in the tank for the Rooneys to explain that the Steelers got the shaft this time in order to throw the dogs off the scent”
Love it!!
On a different note did you read the answer to the last question?
“The NFL’s overtime rules seem to be unpopular. A possible solution to the overtime issue would be to have the pregame coin flip also count for the overtime period. Though some will still complain, at least the luck factor associated with the coin flip is avoided. A team trailing by one, knowing it will not get the ball back in overtime, could then go for the two-point conversion. If that occurs — success or failure — overtime is avoided.”
Thats brilliant, I hope Clayton has enough pull as an insider to run this idea up the ladder.
The Steelers didn’t get shafted. They were made to play by the rules for once. Very, very comical that there are some members of PFT Planet that knew about the compensation cap, myself included… but the Steelers, who actually had to vote on the rule at some point, didn’t know about it.
Kinda reminds me of the Obama administration and Congress, now that I think about it.
I think the NFL needs to look at comp pick determination next year. While I hate the Steelers, I have to admit they got screwed. As a Chargers fan, we got screwed as well…we lost Michael Turner for just a 4th rd comp!? The 2nd leading rusher in the NFL = 4th rd comp!? Might as well say 5th rd selection being that it’s after the 4th rd!? Wow.
However in all fairness, we did receive another 4th rd comp for Drayton Florence who severely underachieved in Jacksonville! So I shouldn’t really be complaining…though I’d rather have 3rd and 5th rd comps instead of the two 4th’s we got.
Which means that the Eagles will only get a 5th for Dawkins…the now highest paid Safety in the game.
Stupid steelers!
3rd or 5th rounder, what difference does it make when you have the refs in your hip pocket for the big game.
Had this been another team Florio would be ripping on them for not knowing the rules but since it is his team he calls the rules unfair. The Steelers should have known the rules if they truly did expect to receive a 3rd rounder for letting Faneca walk.
Compensatory “Rules” have never been published!
It is all done in secret with Jerry Jones getting a better deal than anyone else.
If Peyton Manning left in Free Agency the Colts would only get a 5th round compensatory pick…….Somebody is not being honest.
The Steelers won a super bowl without Faneca, I guess he wasn’t worth that much. They would have never considered franchising Faneca, he was becoming a locker room cancer and had no future with the team. Why couldn’t the NFL simply publish the details of their sacred comp pick formula, it’d be a lot less dramatic.
Now they just need to investigate how the Pats got so many comp picks. Apparently this secret comp formula thinks Asante Samuel is the greatest CB to ever play.
The NFL does need to make this formula public. I always thought it was suspicious that all NFL rules are spelled out clearly except this one. You can find every rule, you can find the salary cap rules and player salaries. But for some reason the NFL guards this formula like Colonel Sanders.
this was news last week
vox, i very seriously doubt that you knew the intricate details of exactly how the compensatory picks are given out in the nfl. you are so stupid. besides, everyone knows five year olds don’t know much any way.
.
What do you mean it’s unfair? It’s in the rules! Hello Spygate!
Vox Veritas says:
March 31st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
The Steelers didn’t get shafted. They were made to play by the rules for once. Very, very comical that there are some members of PFT Planet that knew about the compensation cap, myself included… but the Steelers, who actually had to vote on the rule at some point, didn’t know about it.
Kinda reminds me of the Obama administration and Congress, now that I think about it.
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Vox, do you have a user name that knows its ass from a hole in the ground on any topic? So far you’re 0 for the entire time I’ve been reading here.
As a Steelers fan, I think this is much ado about nothing. The Steelers won the Super Bowl without Faneca, whose play had slipped the last two seasons. ANY pick is a bonus. The best thing about this thread was that it brought out all the Steelers-hater-whiners who can’t stand the fact that the Steelers are the champs and have 6 titles. Wah! Wah! Wah! Gotta love the tears! Cry all you want, butit doesn’t change the name on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Whenever I see the replay of the Super Bowl … THE STEELERS STILL WIN!!!
Surely this is a rule designed to help the Patriots? I mean, they let go all their guys in their 20s who want big money contracts, and bring in old guys in FA. Clearly, the system is designed to help them, duh!
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# 4thand26 says:
March 31st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Which means that the Eagles will only get a 5th for Dawkins…the now highest paid Safety in the game.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the eagles signed a replacement for Dawkins. Compensatory picks arent given out for just losing anyone, arent they given out when you lose someone and you dont replace them through free agency? Faneca wasnt replaced through FA, they let someone on the team take his spot.
That said this is a bit off topic but I always kinda wanted to know if the skins would get a compensatory pick for the loss of Sean Taylor. #5 overall pick in the draft and a probowler wiped away from the face of the earth. I know they didn’t do it for Darrent Williams but I just thought they would get something considering his level of play and the draft pick and resources tied up. I just felt that for a team to be robbed of a star and possibly a great, someone that would at least play many more years at a high level would warrant a pick to help replace the loss over a team deciding not to resign a guy because they didn’t feel he was worth what another team felt.
I also think they keep this a secret formula for a reason. They don’t want teams to take advantage of compensatory picks. Teams should never rely on them. They don’t exactly want teams to not sign a replacement in FA and hope to get a high comp pick because they realize that there isnt a worthy replacement that they would give up say a 3rd rounder for. Doubt they ever want these picks to ever be considered of when signing new players. They should be an afterthought or not thought of at all. Teams should do everything they can to make their team better now and if they can’t find a replacement(which this what its meant for) then the league will reward them of a pick of decent value to help replace the player lost the previous year.
I think the whole compensatory pick system should be done away with.
Now that I have that out of my system, I would like to see the entire file related to the rules of compensatory picks.
How are they determined?
Who gets a pick, based on how good the player was or how good they were in their first year with a new team?
How high is the pick, and is there a cap on certain classes of players? (Faneca, 10 years with the same team….???)
And finally, do teams know what the rules are?
Everybody says, the Steelers knew the rules and knew they were capped at a 5th rounder for Faneca. Did they know the rules? Do all teams have access to the super secret book of rules that determine compensatory picks?
Florio, this is a topic you can do some real reporting on. Find out from your sources whether teams actually have the rules on how compensatory picks are determined. If they do not, report that. If they do, get one or more of your sources to drop you an e-mail with the rules attached and then post them here.
My guess is that the NFL front office has decided to not fill in the details and has not informed the individual team front offices of all the particulars involving the compensatory pick determinations. They simply state that the rules are “complicated” and that the teams and public do not need to know. I would also suspect that some teams do know the particulars of the rules and use them to their advantage. I am not knocking these teams, but everybody should be playing on a level playing field and they should all have equal access to the rules.
Get the compensatory pick rules Florio, and post them hear. That would be a shot heard around the NFL world!
Hmmm. Interesting.
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/26/thursday-morning-one-liners-30/
Vox Veritas says:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Faneca’s a 12 year guy, no way they’d get much compensation for a short-timer.
Got it? I knew, the Steelers didn’t. Even though they voted on the rule, they didn’t know about it. At this point I’m not surprised that Dan Rooney aligned himself with Barack Obama.
“vox, i very seriously doubt that you knew the intricate details of exactly how the compensatory picks are given out in the nfl.”
You’d have to be an idiot to think that any team would get a lot of compensation for a guy that has so much time in. I’m not talking normal stupid, I’m talking Florida stupid, which is the worst kind of stupid.
lax11slice says:
March 31st, 2009 at 9:19 pm
If the Steelers didnt know this rule, then its probably safe to assume no one did, though it really wasnt goin to affect the situation, they werent paying 8M for him
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And if Donovan McNabb didn’t know the overtime rules, then it’s probably safe to assume no one did.
“Meanwhile, we’ll wait for the folks who are convinced that the league office is in the tank for the Rooneys to explain that the Steelers got the shaft this time in order to throw the dogs off the scent.”
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Boom! I said the same thing last week. Strangely enough, not a single one of the cowardly Steeler haters (jealous of six) had the seeds to answer.
Yeah, the NFL really does favor the Steelers. Uh huh.
Well come on haters, how do you explain this one?
Vox Veritas says:
March 31st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
The Steelers didn’t get shafted. They were made to play by the rules for once. Very, very comical that there are some members of PFT Planet that knew about the compensation cap, myself included… but the Steelers, who actually had to vote on the rule at some point, didn’t know about it.
Kinda reminds me of the Obama administration and Congress, now that I think about it.
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Translation: Wahhhh! I hate you Steelers for having six Lombardis! Now my days of bragging about having 5 to Eagles and Giants fans are over. God I’m such a loser.
I don’t think the Steelers can ever complain again after they were handed their one for the thumb. Seattle has a legit beef however. Just because they didn’t know the rule, doesn’t mean that the league is giving them the shaft.
For SF Saints Fan – Some other guy who posts on here actually forecasts most of the picks and puts it out for public domain and just asks for credit.
From what I remember reading on that site, the executive front offices of the teams have evaluated the compensatory system and figured out most of the rules. However the fine details are some what of a trade secret.
The system awards the picks based off the contract size of the players leaving the team against the contract size of players coming in to replace those same players.
Teams will be rewarded compensation only for departing players drafted by the team.
Most teams figured there was a capped value for players that had been on the team for a certain number of years. Know it is fact.
Deal with it, and learn the rules next time. A rule is a rule, unless the rule involves instant replay on last second field goal attempts. Then those rules can be broken. See Beowns/Ravens 2007.
vox, that has absolutely nothing to do with changing the fact that 100% of the people on here think you’re an asshole and you suck.
.
I think Vox usually makes good football points and like reading what he writes.
moswesley,
It doesn’t matter who drafted a player when it comes to comp picks. A team could sign a free agent one year, lose him the next year, then get a comp pick for him the following year.
And vox,
You might actually look smart if there was any proof that you knew the rule before it was reported in the media. Saying you knew it all along AFTER the fact doesn’t do you any good.
I’ve been tracking comp picks since 1994 and have read just about everything ever written about them, and I’ve never seen the 10-year rule mentioned until this year.
neutral_like_sweden says:
April 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I think Vox usually makes good football points and like reading what he writes.
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Yet another Vox login?
Frank Burns says:
April 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Boom! I said the same thing last week. Strangely enough, not a single one of the cowardly Steeler haters (jealous of six) had the seeds to answer.
Yeah, the NFL really does favor the Steelers. Uh huh.
Well come on haters, how do you explain this one?
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Boom? There’s no boom here. The title should read, “Steelers Forced to Follow Same Rules as Every Other Team”. The subtitle (if Florio could afford them) would be, “Steelers Fans Expected to Tout this as Evidence that League Screws Team Over”.
Boom.