Early comp pick projections for 2010, Part IV

In the fourth post of my series explaining the compensatory pick possibilities for each team, I'll look at the teams in the AFC East.

Click here to review the Unrestricted Free Agents lost and signed by each team during the qualifying period of the 2009 offseason.


New England — The Patriots should get four comp picks. They lost four players who will qualify and didn't sign any players who definitely will qualify. They also have one player signed and one player lost who are on the bubble for qualifying. Because the player they lost has a higher value than the one they signed, there is no way for the player signed to qualify without the player lost also qualifying, so those players will not affect the Patriots' comp picks. Three of the Patriots' comp picks will be in the seventh rouond. One, for Jabar Gaffney, likely will be in the seventh round but has a small chance of being in the sixth round.

Miami — Whether the Dolphins get a comp pick depends on whether Joe Berger qualifies for the equation. If he does, the Dolphins will not get a comp pick, because they would have lost two qualifying players and signed two qualifying players. If Berger does not qualify, though, they would have signed only one qualifying player and would get a comp pick for Renaldo Hill in either the sixth or seventh round.

New York Jets — The Jets will not receive a comp pick. They signed three players who will qualify and one who is on the bubble for qualifying. They lost no more than three players who will qualify. As I explained in a previous post (scroll to the bottom of that post), Laveranues Coles might not qualify for the equation, which would mean that the Jets lost only two qualifying players. Either way, the Jets did not suffer a net loss of free agents and will not receive a comp pick.

Buffalo — The Bills signed two qualifying players and lost two qualifying players, so they will not receive a true comp pick. There is an outside chance that the Bills will receive a "net value" comp pick at the end of the seventh round if the players they lost have a combined value that is sufficiently more than the combined value of the players they signed. Whether that is the case will be determined by the final values of the players involved.