NFL Draft 2024: Updated List of Compensatory Picks Released; Bengals Add 3rd-Rounder

Andrew PetersMarch 11, 2024

Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

After the initial list of the 2024 NFL draft compensatory picks was revealed last week, the league announced an update on Monday.

The list remains mostly the same with the most notable change impacting the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals will now have a third-round pick instead of one of the two sixth-round picks they previously held, per ESPN’s Field Yates.

Cincinnati now has the No. 97 over pick and the No. 214 pick, according to Pro Football Network’s Jay Morrison.

Jay Morrison @ByJayMorrisonThe third-round comp pick the #Bengals are getting is No. 97 overall (second of 32 comp picks overall).
The 6th rounder is 214. pic.twitter.com/F1yjv8h1ED

Compensatory picks, introduced in 1994, are doled out based on a formula that factors in salaries, playing time and league honors to rank the free agents teams lost in a given year. The NFL uses the formula to determine what teams get compensatory picks, and where in the draft those picks are awarded.

According to The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., the league found an error in how it distributed this year’s picks, later correcting that mistake by awarding Cincinnati a higher pick than it initially received.

With the updated compensatory picks, the Bengals now have nine picks in the 2024 NFL draft—the highest being the 18th pick. Bleacher Report’s Scouting Department projects Cincinnati taking defensive lineman Jer’Zhan Newton with that pick.

While compensatory picks don’t give teams the chance to land one of the top prospects in the draft, they present the opportunity to land an impactful player—especially with a pick as high as the Bengals’ No. 97 pick.

Some compensatory picks have also gone on to have Hall of Fame careers—Tom Brady being one of them in 2000. Some other big names like Matt Hasselback, Hines Ward and Dak Prescott were also results of compensatory picks.

Cincinnati getting an earlier pick in the draft won’t change the trajectory of its season, but it can certainly be considered a win this offseason.