The Buffalo Bills were not happy about the way the 2024 compensatory draft pick situation went down. Brandon Beane included.
The Bills general manager gave some candid thoughts on what happened.
Long story short: There is no true formula to the way the NFL hands out compensatory picks. Previously we had to project where they would and the thought was that Buffalo would land one in the third round.
Instead, the league awarded the Bills a fourth rounder. That’s a whole round later than even Beane expected.
“It did surprise me,” Beane said via video conference.“I think us and San Francisco, we got a raw deal.”
Beane went on to explain that he did contact the league offices via Zoom call and asked what happened. Nothing changed.
“By even their accounts, as we were checking with them through the year, we clearly had a third-rounder,” Beane said.
The loosely-based compensatory system is based of losses a team has in free agency the year prior. Before the 2023 season, Buffalo lost free agent linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. He landed a large $72 million contract with the Chicago Bears.
Comp picks are handed out between Round 3 and 7 for the following year’s draft. Because Edmunds’ deal was so large, a third rounder was expected… but no dice.
Beane’s full thoughts can be found in the WKBW-TV clip below:
Brandon Beane explains why the Bills are getting a fourth round compensatory pick instead of a third round pick like they had planned. He called it "a raw deal" #BillsMafia @WKBW pic.twitter.com/jUXNafXgT4
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) March 25, 2024
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