Under the rules for compensatory draft selections, a team losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks. Today, the NFL has announced that 32 compensatory draft picks are to be given to 23 different NFL franchises.
The San Diego Chargers, and their General Manager A.J. Smith, are typically awarded compensatory picks annually because the team rarely signs more free agents than it loses. As a matter of fact, the Chargers are being rewarded for losing two free agents (Kassim Osgood and Brandon Manumaleuna) while signing none.
Kassim Osgood signed last offseason with the Jacksonville Jaguars, while Brandon Manumaleuna reunited with Mike Martz by signing with the Chicago Bears.
The picks being received are the 201st pick (36th in the 6th round) and the 233rd pick (33rd pick in the 7th round). The Chargers, who already had more picks than most of the rest of the league, could leverage these new picks and package their current 6th and 7th round picks to move up in the 2011 NFL draft.