The New England Patriots got some good news over the weekend and that news came in the form of an extra pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Thanks to a small error by the NFL, the Patriots picked up an extra fifth-round pick (177th overall).
It’s not often that the NFL makes a mistake when trying to hand out picks for the draft, but the league made one this year and the Patriots were the biggest benefactors. If you’re wondering how a team can magically receive an extra pick in the draft, it all comes down to compensatory picks.
Every year, the NFL hands out 32 picks and although the exact formula the league uses to award comp picks hasn’t been released by the league, we do know that it basically boils down to this: A team that loses more high-impact free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks.
The NFL uses a complicated formula to determine comp picks, and apparently, the formula is so complicated that even the NFL was briefly confused by it. When compensatory picks were originally handed out on March 10, the Patriots were given two, including the highest one possible — a third-rounder — for losing Tom Brady.
The Patriots should have been given three compensatory picks back on March 10 and the NFL admitted that in a statement.
“The inclusion of a 33rd compensatory selection in this year’s Draft resulted from a correction by the Management Council to the calculation of average yearly compensation,” the league told MassLive.com.
With the Patriots getting a pick, that means a few things had to be shuffled around and the biggest loser after that happened was the Falcons, who saw one of their compensatory picks drop down two spots.
“As a result of the correction, the Patriots were awarded the first compensatory pick in Round 5, and the Falcons’ first compensatory selection in Round 5 has moved down two slots,” the NFL said.
What all this means is that the Patriots will now be going into the draft with 10 picks instead of nine. Of course, the Patriots could have had a total of 11, but they had to forfeit a third-round pick as part of their punishment for illegally taping the Bengals during a game in December 2019.
If you want to see where the Patriots and every other team will be picking this year, you can check out the entire draft order by clicking here.