#102 | SimNFL | Compensatory Picks & Rewarding Draft Selections

[TuscanSota]

Hey all,

 

I wanted to follow up from the previous dev diary but here is a further explanation from Pierce on the Compensatory Pick system:

Beginning with the 2024 SimNFL Draft, the league will award compensatory draft selections to teams who lose more high-Overall players than they gain in free agency. These picks can range from 3rd to 7th rounders, and always come at the end of the round in which they are awarded. This Dev Diary will cover the way these picks are calculated and handed out.

Calculating Rounds

To calculate which round a free agent might be “worth”, we first rank all rostered players in the league by Overall score, with contract Value as the tiebreaker. Note that this includes every player on every team, regardless of whether or not they will be a free agent this year. For a list with N players, we give the highest-ranked player N points, the next-highest player N-1 points, all the way down to the last player on the list who gets 1 point.

Example: Haim Costa is currently the only player with an 88 Overall. If there are 1,800 rostered players in the league, Haim Costa begins with 1,800 points. The highest-paid player with an 87 Overall begins with 1,799 points, and so on.  

Next, we add points based on the number of snaps played. The player with the most snaps played in the league gets 100 points. Everyone else’s snaps get compared to that number, and the player receives points equal to that percentage. 

Example: Player A played in 1,000 snaps, the most in the league, and so gets 100 points. Player B played in 950 snaps, so they get 95 points.

Finally, we add points based on postseason honors. The MVP, OPOTY, and DPOTY get an additional 20 points. All-Pros get an additional 5 points (which can stack with the other honors).

The points from all 3 steps are totalled and the players re-ranked. At this point, compensatory rounds are assigned to the top 25% of players as followed:

Top 5% : 3rd round
6% - 10%: 4th round
11% - 15% 5th round
16% -20%: 6th round
21% - 25%: 7th round

 

Example: There are 1,800 rostered players. The players ranked 1-90 in the final total get a 3rd round grade. The players ranked 91-180 get a 4th round grade, etc. Everyone ranked 451 and below gets no grade. 

Compensatory Additions & Departures

If a player's contract expires and they sign with a different team in free agency, that player’s round will be added to a tally for each team (as a departure for the original team, as an addition for the new team). Note that cut or traded players are not included, only expired contracts. When pre-draft free agency closes, the commissioner will compare each teams’ additions and departures and cancel picks out according to the following rules:

• Each addition can cancel up to 1 departure
• An addition cancels out the highest-rated departure of the same level or lower
• An addition only cancels out a departure of a higher level if there is no other departure available

Remember: if a player’s total score from earlier is too low to have a round associated with it, they have no impact on compensatory picks either way. In 2024 that threshold is about a 64 Overall, but that could shift depending on snap counts. A definitive player list with associated rounds will be published at the end of the season. 

Once this comparison is complete, compensatory picks are awarded to all departures that were not canceled out, up to a maximum of 32 picks. If there are more than 32 qualifying departures, only the highest 32 picks will be awarded. There is no minimum number of picks. 

Each team can have a maximum of 4 compensatory picks.

Examples

The following players are made up, but the round rankings are realistic compared to their OVR score (again, snaps and awards will also play a factor). The round is listed first, followed by the name and Overall

Hamilton Tiger Cats

Departures	Additions
4. Aaron Aldritch (77)
6. Benny Barnum (73)	5. Donnie Dranzel (75)
7. Charlie Chance (66)	7. Eddie Ertz (67)

The 5th round addition cancels out the 6th round departure (too low to cancel the 4th)

The 7th round addition cancels out the 7th round departure

 

There are no more additions, so the Tiger Cats get a 4th round compensatory pick

 

Montreal Alouettes

Departures	Additions
5. Francis Foote (76)	3. Jerry Juniper (82)
5. Gregory Good (75)	6. Kelly Kinder (73)
7. Harry Hamilton (70)
7. Ian Ignotus (68)

The 3rd round addition cancels out the 5th round departure (highest remaining)

The 6th round addition cancels out the 7th round departure (too low to cancel the other 5th)

There are no more additions, so the Alouettes get a 5th and a 7th round compensatory pick

 

Toronto Argonauts

Departures	Additions

The 5th round addition cancels out the 6th round departure (too low to cancel the 4th)

The 6th round addition cancels out the 4th round departure (no other lower departures to cancel)

Since there are no more departures, the Argonauts are not awarded any compensatory picks.

 

Calgary Stampeders

Departures	Additions
5. Perry Pennington (76)	4. Rusty Robinson (78)
	5. Stewart Swell (75)
	7. Terry Tomlin (67)

The 4th round addition cancels out the 5th round departure

Since there are no more departures, the Stampeders are not awarded any compensatory picks.

 

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

Tuscan and @Piercewise1

[Jieret]

Where BC Lions?

Thanks gentlemen. As always, appreciate the hard work you put into this!