Despite some Lions players from last season signing lucrative free agent deals elsewhere this offseason, Detroit is not projected to earn any compensatory selections in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The latest projections for 2025 comp picks from both NFL.com and Over The Cap do not include the Lions among those teams receiving any. The Lions are one of 17 teams whose spending on incoming free agents canceled out the losses from the roster in the qualifying portion of free agency.
The formula for awarding compensatory picks isn’t completely known, but it’s based on a formula that balances the average per year (APY) value of contracts signed by qualified free agents departing the team against the APY value of free agents the team signed.
For Detroit, three departing free agents qualified:
- Jonah Jackson – $17 million APY
- Chauncey Gardner-Johnson – $11 million
- Josh Reynolds – $4.5 million
Detroit added in four qualifying free agents:
- Kevin Zeitler – $6 million
- Marcus Davenport – $6.5 million
- DJ Reader – $11 million
- Amik Robertson – $4.6 million
The Lions did lose $4.4 million in net free agent spending ($32.1 lost, $28.1 spent), but that’s not enough to earn one of the 32 compensatory picks. As Lance Zierlien of NFL.com notes,
“To qualify for compensatory picks, teams must end up with more qualifying free agents lost than gained in a particular year.”
Detroit signed four and only lost three in the qualifying period, which ended on April 29th when the 2204 NFL draft process concluded. Any further free agency moves don’t factor into the comp pick formula. Detroit last earned compensatory picks in the 2022 NFL draft. Those picks turned into Kerby Joseph, James Mitchell and James Houston.
