As expected, Eagles add three compensatory draft picks, a third-rounder and a pair of fourth-rounders, for 10 total selections
The team lost Nick Foles, Jordan Hicks and Golden Tate in 2019 free agency, then cut Andrew Sendejo before he could mitigate the compensatory pick haul.
The NFL’s formula for determining compensatory draft picks can be quirky, but it worked as expected for the Eagles on Tuesday when the league announced 32 such selections to be added to the April entry draft, three of them for the Birds.
Compensatory picks are awarded when it turns out that a team lost more value in free agency the previous season than it gained. In the Eagles’ case, Nick Foles, Jordan Hicks, and Golden Tate tallied in the “for” column and no one they signed counted on the other side of the ledger. Safety Andrew Sendejo would have erased one of the fourth-round picks, had general manager Howie Roseman not cut him just before the deadline for such things, against the wishes of some Eagles coaches.
Roseman has ended up with just five total picks the past two seasons, something that previously hadn’t happened to the Eagles since 1989. He was eager to boost this year’s total, which now is 10, the most the Eagles have held since 2010. Roseman said at the NFL scouting combine last month that this is a time for “retooling,” as the Eagles look to revamp a roster that has gotten older and more injury-prone since the team won its only Super Bowl, two years back.
The league hasn’t announced the official draft order, but the Eagles choose 21st in the first round, 53rd overall in the second. They have a pair of third-round picks, including the first compensatory pick, 103rd overall. Then they have three fourth-round selections, including the other two compensatory picks, 145th and 146th overall. They pick twice in the fifth round and once in the sixth. They currently do not own a seventh-round pick.