Did NFL Management Council Make Mistake With Bengals' Compensatory Pick Process?

CINCINNATI — The Bengals were awarded two sixth-round compensatory picks on Friday, giving them nine total selections in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Those picks are awarded to teams that lost free agents the year prior.

Nick Korte is a compensatory pick expert. He pays attention to the formulas, how they work and usually nails his predictions every year.

The Bengals lost Jessie Bates last year, but signed Orlando Brown Jr. Most expected those two players to cancel each other out and keep Cincinnati from getting a third-round compensatory pick for losing Bates.

It turns out there's at least a chance the Bengals should've gotten a third rounder instead of one of the two sixth-rounders they received.

Korte points out inconsistencies in this year's formula, including three specific teams that should ask for clarity from the NFL Management Council: Bengals, Bills and 49ers.

Read the breakdown below, which includes thoughts on the cutoff and history of the NFL Management Council making mistakes.

My annual evaluation of my compensatory picks projection for 2024 will have to wait for several reasons.

But in the meantime, something is really, really wrong with the 3rd/4th round cutoff--to the point that I'm concerned that the NFL Management Council may have made an error.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024

The players valued in the 3rd round in the compensatory formula are those ranked in the top 5%.

But if the top 5% was 62 players, the leaguewide # of players considered would have been 1,240—ridiculously too low.

That number is usually between ~1,800-2,000. I think it's ~1,846.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024

If Jessie Bates's contract was valued as a 3rd, and Orlando Brown Jr.'s was valued as a 4th, this is what the Bengals' cancellation chart would have looked like: a 3rd and a 6th, instead of two 6ths. pic.twitter.com/ggdirDLfnP
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024

The NFL Management Council has made errors before.

In 2015, it had a "database error". https://t.co/qfUusw93Pf

And in 2021 it awarded an extra compensatory pick after erroneously missing a Patriots pick.https://t.co/VMT61krcJK

There could be a chance they made another error.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 8, 2024

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