When the Miami Dolphins entered free agency last offseason, the team seemed content to hold their water through the first phase of free agency — intent on cashing in via the departures of several big name players in the form of compensatory picks. It is sound strategy for a team entering a rebuild, every picks counts for something and can be used in trade scenarios or potentially be cashed in for a big steal in the draft.
And so the Dolphins were content to let Ja’Wuan James and Cameron Wake leave in free agency. After all, James had been a middling player with some injury issues in Miami and Cameron Wake, for as good as he’s been, inevitably wasn’t going to be a part of the long-term future here in South Florida.
So off they went. And when the duo left to sign with Denver and Tennessee, respectively, the Dolphins anticipated cashing in some big hits in the compensatory formula. James was made the highest paid right tackle in football and Wake signed a 3-year, $23M deal to play in Tennessee.
Given the Dolphins’ lack of spending, Miami was initially projected to recoup a 2020 3rd-round pick for James and a 2020 5th-round pick for Wake.
Now that the season is over, the latest (and final) compensatory pick projections are out courtesy of Nick Korte of OverTheCap.com. And it’s not good news for Miami.
The compensatory pick for Ja’Wuan James has been downgraded from a 3rd-round pick to a 4th-round pick due to James’ inability to stay healthy this year. James played in just 3 games this season (continuing his trend of missing at least half the season on every odd year he’s been in the NFL).
The compensatory pick for Wake? It could be gone all together. Wake logged just 198 snaps over 9 games for the Titans — grossly impacting his forecasted loss to Miami in the NFL’s compensatory pick formula. If the NFL values his loss as a 6th round value, Miami will get nothing for losing Wake. But, as Korte writes, the NFL values Wake’s lost contract as a 5th round value, Miami will still get the 5th-round pick in the compensatory phase of the round.
For now, all we can do is wait.
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