NFL Draft: New England Patriots' Recent History of Compensatory Draft Picks

The NFL announced the allocation of 32 compensatory draft selections on Saturday.

The New England Patriots were one of only nine teams to not receive a selection due to the process used to determine which teams require compensation for departed free agents.

Compensatory picks are awarded based on number of free agents signed and numbers of free agents lost to other teams. This past offseason New England saw two free agents sign with other teams.

Ben Watson joined the Cleveland Browns and Jarvis Green agreed to terms with the Denver Broncos. New England only signed one free agent last offseason, that player being Alge Crumpler. His acquisition more or less canceled out the loss of Watson and Green, which is why the team isn't receiving any picks this year.

The selections are determined by a formula which takes multiple factors into consideration. A player’s salary, playing time and any postseason awards determine the value of the assigned picks which can fall anywhere from the end of the third round all the way to the seventh round.

Asante Samuel’s departure resulted in the highest possible compensation as the Patriots received the 97th overall pick, which they used to select linebacker Tyrone McKenzie in 2009. McKenzie lost his rookie season to an ACL injury he sustained in rookie camp.

New England has been a league leader in compensatory selections since 2000, making a total of 24 since the Bill Belichick era began.

The team values any draft picks it can get its hands on and has had tremendous success in the past selecting players with the non-tradable slots.

Wide receiver Julian Edelman was the 232nd overall pick in 2009, quarterback Matt Cassel was the 230th overall pick in 2005, wide receiver David Givens the 253rd overall in 2002, and going all the way back to Belichick’s first year of coaching, running back Patrick Pass was selected 239th overall in 2000.

There was one other pick to make note of in the same year.

Quarterback Tom Brady, who was selected in the sixth round as the 199th overall pick in in the 2000 NFL Draft, was a compensatory selection as well.

Last year the Patriots were awarded a league-high four compensatory draft choices. Two of those four picks are no longer with the team, but defensive linemen Brandon Deaderick and Kade Weston still remain.

Deaderick, the 247th overall pick in the seventh round, started four games in his rookie campaign while playing in 10 total, becoming the latest compensatory success story.

The success with these generally late-round picks has a lot more to do with the Patriots skill in determining player potential deep on draft boards. It seems to be a yearly occurrence at this point as New England has produced so many talented players from the late rounds and undrafted free agent list over the past decade.

The compensatory selections are great to have, but the lack of any this year will not negatively affect the team. New England already owns nine picks with two selections in each of the first three rounds.

Those selections are tradable unlike the compensatory picks so the team will be operating with full flexibility throughout the draft, something Patriots fans should be excited about with Belichick at the helm, especially considering the crop of rookies brought in last year.

Interested in reading more by this Columnist? Check out more of Aaron Dodge's work on Bleacher Report and on SportsHaze.com/Boston.

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