The NFL's free agency and draft process is not like the NBA. While basketball has a pretty straightforward system where if you lose a player via free agency, you receive nothing in return, the NFL's is a bit different.
In football, you can actually gain draft picks if you lose free agents. Now, you don't gain a pick every time one of your players signs with another team, but it's based on things such as how many players you lose versus how many players you gain, player value, etc.
It's a relatively complicated process, but it's one that can really take the sting out of a bad free agency period.
However, some teams are simply better at taking advantage of this system than others.
While the New England Patriots have racked up a whole bunch of compensatory picks over the last five years, other clubs have not been as fortunate, as nearly 30 percent of the league has not landed a single compensatory draft pick over that period of time:
STUDY: When the NFL gives away draft picks, you better take them.
An analysis of the last 5 years of comp picks:https://t.co/lLnbVUDwrV
•NE has added the equivalent of almost EIGHT avg draft picks (pick 128) the last 5 yrs.
•Almost 30% of teams haven't added ONE avg pick. pic.twitter.com/9fHPGu74Mn— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 23, 2019
The fact that the Patriots know how to work this process should not come as a surprise. After all, they have won six Super Bowl championships since 2001, and over the last five years, they have won three.
So, basically, good front offices are good at things like this.
But there is also a reason why so many other ballclubs in the NFL have been languishing over this same period of time.
It just goes to show how much of a difference having good football minds in your organization makes.
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