The Bears received two compensatory draft selections — both in the sixth round — on Wednesday.
They added the picks — No. 221 and No. 228 overall — as a result of an NFL formula that rewards teams who lose more free agents than they gain. The two picks bring the Bears’ pick total up to eight when the draft starts April 29 in Cleveland.
For the first time in three years, they’ll draft in the first round — they have pick No. 20. They have one selection in in each of Rounds 2, 3 and 5, plus three in Round 6 and one in Round 7.
The Bears traded their 2021 Round 4 pick last year to pick Trevis Gipson and gave the Raiders their seventh-rounder for kicker Eddy Pineiro. They got a seventh-round pick back from the Dolphins in the Adam Shaheen trade.
Their compensatory picks came because, while the Bears added big-money edge rusher Robert Quinn via free agency a year ago, they lost inside linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, quarterback Chase Daniel, defensive tackle Nick Williams and inside linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis.
Last year, the Bears got a fourth-round pick to make up for safety Adrian Amos’ departure to the Packers. Before then, the Bears hadn’t claimed a compensatory pick since 2009.
The NFL gave out 32 compensatory picks because of free agent losses and, for the first time, five other selections to teams whose minority employees became either a head coach or general manager elsewhere this offseason.
