The number of draft selections the Washington Redskins hold in April’s NFL Draft is projected to increase from five to eight. According to OverTheCap.com‘s projections, the Redskins will receive three compensatory draft picks.
Those projections include a third-round pick for none other than former quarterback Kirk Cousins. The Redskins ended their three-year contract battle with Cousins by trading for quarterback Alex Smith in January of 2018. Cousins was finally allowed to test free agency in which he signed a fully guaranteed, three-year deal worth $84 million with the Minnesota Vikings.
Compensatory picks are based on the contract a player signed after leaving his first team in free agency. A third-round pick is the highest possible draft pick awarded based on the league’s formula. In fact OTC’s projections has Cousins as the highest compensatory pick in 2019. That was long expected given the size of Cousins’ deal with Minnesota.
Washington’s other two projected compensatory picks are a fifth and sixth-round pick. The fifth is for edge rusher Trent Murphy, who signed a three-year, $22.5 million deal with the Buffalo Bills last off-season. The sixth is for wide receiver Ryan Grant, who settled for a one-year, $5 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.
Washington has a fourth compensatory pick for Niles Paul, who signed a two-year deal worth $4.75 million with the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, the NFL only awards the top-32 formulated compensatory picks. According to OTC, Paul is the 33rd-rated compensatory pick which would mean the Redskins would not be awarded that pick if their projections are accurate.
OTC has been close to perfect over the years, and while the official awarded picks won’t be revealed until after the annual spring meetings, we have a rough idea of what the Redskins should expect.
Based on the projections, the Redskins will have two third-round picks as well as two fifth-rounders. They exercised their natural sixth-round pick on cornerback Adonis Alexander in last year’s supplemental draft, so the compensatory pick would be their lone pick in the round prior to any trades. Since 2017, teams are allowed to trade compensatory picks.
Redskins Projected Draft Picks
- Round 1 – 15th overall
- Round 2 – 46th overall
- Round 3 – 77th overall
- Round 3 – compensatory
- Round 5 – 15th pick in the round
- Round 5 – compensatory
- Round 6 – compensatory
- Round 7 – 13th pick in the round
The Redskins traded their fourth-round pick to the Green Bay Packers in the Ha Ha Clinton-Dix trade in October.
