The Carolina Panthers were among the big losers in free agency a year ago, with Julius Peppers leaving for Chicago. So a year later, they’re the big winners in compensatory draft picks.
The NFL announced today announced how this year’s 32 compensatory choices in the NFL Draft have been allocated, and the Panthers (who also lost free agent quarterback A.J. Feeley last year) are the only team with a third-round compensatory pick, as well as the only team to get three compensatory picks overall.
The Panthers ended up with the 33rd pick in the third round (97th overall), 38th pick in the sixth round (207th overall) and 43rd pick in the seventh round (243rd overall) as compensatory selections.
Under the somewhat complicated rules for compensatory draft picks, a team losing more or better free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to get up to four extra picks in the draft.
In addition to the Panthers, the other teams that did well in the compensatory draft department were the Titans and Packers, who each got a fourth-round pick, as well as the Ravens, who got two fifth-round picks. All the other compensatory picks are in the sixth and seventh rounds.
The full list of compensatory picks is here.