The Green Bay Packers did pretty well for themselves for doing absolutely nothing.
The NFL awarded compensatory draft picks today and the Packers picked up two of them. The picks are in the third (No. 98) and fifth (No. 176).
The league hands these picks out based on net free agent losses from the previous offseason using some top-secret formula. The Packers lost receiver Greg Jennings and linebacker Erik Walden and signed absolutely no one. So here’s one instance where doing jack shit paid off… a year later.
Ted Thompson — master of the long play!
The third rounder was awarded for Jennings, so someone in the league office thought he was pretty valuable. Compensatory picks don’t get any higher than the third round.
With the additions, the Packers now have nine picks total. Those will surely turn into many more though. Thompson will likely deal his second and third for a fifth, two sixths and four sevenths.
Gotta stockpile those late-round picks, you know. One of those guys just might, someday, turn out to be somewhat average.
Fortunately, the Packers can’t trade their compensatory picks, so we won’t have to worry about either of those selections suddenly becoming five sevenths and a half-eaten bag of Gardetto’s.