After watching Tampa Bay make Ryan Jensen the highest-paid center in NFL history last March, the Ravens have received a third-round compensatory pick in the 2019 draft.
Despite the organization’s longstanding reputation for valuing compensatory picks more than any other team in the NFL, this marks the third consecutive year in which the Ravens will receive only one: the 102nd overall selection of April’s draft. The maximum number of compensatory picks awarded to any team in a single year is four as Arizona, New England, and Washington received the maximum. The NFL awarded a total of 32 compensatory choices to 15 teams this year.
Entering his first season as general manager, Eric DeCosta is scheduled to have a total of eight selections in this year’s draft: a first-round pick, two third-round choices, two fourth-rounders, one fifth, and two sixth-round picks. The Ravens traded their 2019 second-round selection to Philadelphia last April to move up to draft quarterback Lamar Jackson with the final pick of the first round, but they will receive a fourth-round pick from Denver in the Joe Flacco trade expected to be completed next month. Baltimore received a 2019 sixth-round pick from Tennessee in the Kamalei Correa trade and lost its seventh-round pick to Jacksonville in a 2017 trade for offensive lineman Luke Bowanko.
The Ravens lost Jensen, wide receiver Mike Wallace, and tight end Benjamin Watson as unrestricted free agents and signed wide receiver John Brown as an unrestricted free agent last offseason. That net loss of two usually means two compensatory picks being awarded, but Wallace’s one-year contract with Philadelphia fell below the top 32 threshold, leaving the Ravens without an additional seventh-round selection to go along with the third-round pick for Jensen’s exit.
Determinations for compensatory picks are based on a formula considering the salary, playing time, and postseason honors earned by unrestricted free agents who left their teams the previous offseason. Since the compensatory pick program started in 1994, the Ravens have led the NFL in receiving 50 compensatory choices as the organization has often resisted signing unrestricted free agents over the years while making difficult decisions not to re-sign their own.
Below is a history of the Ravens’ compensatory picks since 1996 with the round in which the player was selected noted in parentheses:
1996: none
1997: LB Cornell Brown (sixth), QB Wally Richardson (seventh), S Ralph Staten (seventh), DT Leland Taylor (seventh)
1998: TE Cam Qualey (seventh)
1999: G Edwin Mulitalo (fourth)
2000: none
2001: none
2002: WR Javin Hunter (sixth), RB Chester Taylor (sixth), S Chad Williams (sixth)
2003: FB Ovie Mughelli (fourth), OT Tony Pashos (fifth), C Mike Mabry (seventh), S Antwoine Sanders (seventh)
2004: WR Clarence Moore (sixth), WR Derek Abney (seventh), G Brian Rimpf (seventh)
2005: QB Derek Anderson (sixth)
2006: RB P.J. Daniels (fourth), TE Quinn Sypniewski (fifth), P Sam Koch (sixth), CB Derrick Martin (sixth)
2007: LB Antwan Barnes (fourth), FB Le’Ron McClain (fourth), QB Troy Smith (fifth), LB Prescott Burgess (sixth)
2008: OL Oniel Cousins (third), OL David Hale (fourth), S Haruki Nakamura (sixth), RB Allen Patrick (seventh)
2009: none
2010: none
2011: CB Chykie Brown (fifth), DE Pernell McPhee (fifth)
2012: S Christian Thompson (fourth), CB Asa Jackson (fifth)
2013: FB Kyle Juszczyk (fourth), OT Rick Wagner (fifth), OL Ryan Jensen (sixth), CB Marc Anthony (seventh)
2014: TE Crockett Gillmore (third), DE Brent Urban (fourth), RB Lorenzo Taliaferro (fourth), G John Urschel (fifth)
2015: CB Tray Walker (fourth), TE Nick Boyle (fifth), G Robert Myers (fifth)
2016: DT Willie Henry (fourth), RB Kenneth Dixon (fourth), CB Maurice Canady (sixth)
2017: Traded third-round compensatory pick and DT Timmy Jernigan for Philadelphia’s third-round pick used to select DE Chris Wormley
2018: OL Bradley Bozeman (sixth)
