Eagles officially receive two compensatory picks in the 2019 NFL Draft

The NFL officially awarded compensatory picks for the 2019 NFL Draft on Friday afternoon. Here’s the entire list, as first reported by NFL insider Adam Schefter.

The Philadelphia Eagles were projected to earn three compensatory selections due to last year’s losses in free agency but it turns out they’ll only get two instead. That’s a bit of a bummer as they were expected to get another sixth. It appears Howie Roseman’s attempt to game the system with Mike Wallace’s unique contract structure did not work out.

The Eagles ultimately received a fourth-round selection for losing Trey Burton and a sixth-round selection for losing one of Beau Allen or Patrick Robinson (not exactly sure which one ended up counting).

The Eagles now have eight picks in the 2019 NFL Draft. Here’s the entire list:

1 - Eagles’ own pick (No. 25)

2 - Acquired from the Baltimore Ravens (No. 53)

2 - Eagles’ own pick (No. 57)

4 - Eagles’ own pick (No. 127)

4 - Compensatory pick (No. 138)

5 - Eagles’ own pick (No. 163)

6 - Eagles’ own pick (No. 198)

6 - Compensatory pick (No. 208)

The Eagles could potentially add more picks by making some offseason trades. Philadelphia is reportedly hoping to franchise tag and trade Nick Foles for a third-round selection.

The Eagles will also likely be adding more compensatory picks to their arsenal in next year’s 2020 NFL Draft. The following 17 players are currently set to be unrestricted free agents this offseason:

Nick Foles

Brandon Graham

Golden Tate

Ronald Darby

Jordan Hicks

Jay Ajayi

Haloti Ngata

Mike Wallace

Jordan Matthews

Darren Sproles

Richard Rodgers

Rick Lovato

Chance Warmack

Corey Graham

LaRoy Reynolds

D.J. Alexander

Chris Maragos

There’s a real chance the Eagles will have enough free agent losses to qualify for the max amount of four compensatory picks next year. Some of those picks could be as high as third-round selections depending on who leaves and how much their new contracts are worth.

Ideally, the Eagles will be able to retain some of their top free agents. But the reality is they’re limited on cap space and won’t be able to pay everyone. Thus, the Eagles will have to rely on playing the comp pick game as we accurately predicted they’d start doing back in 2017.

For a more detailed explanation on compensatory picks, you can click here to read about them. For a basic understanding, I’m going to rely on how I’ve previously explained them.

The NFL awards teams who lose more free agents than they sign in free agency by compensating them with extra draft picks. These picks are awarded at the end of each round from rounds three through seven. The kind of compensatory picks earned mostly depend on the contract a player signs. The bigger the contract, the better the pick.