In the last two offseasons, the Los Angeles Rams have signed exactly one player who qualified for the compensatory pick formula. Every other free agent was either released by his former team (Ndamukong Suh) or signed a contract so inexpensive that it didn’t count toward the equation (Ramik Wilson).
The one signing that factored into the formula was Clay Matthews. The Rams signed him to a two-year deal with a base value of $9.25 million – a reasonable contract for a veteran linebacker. However, with that signing, the Rams could lose the fourth-round compensatory pick they were slated to get for the departure of Lamarcus Joyner.
According to Over The Cap’s cancellation chart, Matthews’ deal negates the pick Los Angeles was supposed to get for losing Joyner … for now.
Nick Korte of Over The Cap tweeted that Matthews’ deal is valued at the sixth-round level and does cancel out the Joyner pick. However, if/when Ndamukong Suh signs elsewhere, the Rams could get the fourth-rounder back – depending on how factors like the size of Suh’s contract and how much playing time he gets with his new team.
The compensatory picks in the 2020 draft won’t be set in stone until next February sometime. There are a number of factors that go into the mysterious formula, from post-season accolades to salary to playing time. So it’s not the time to get up in arms about Matthews canceling out a fourth-round pick.
There’s plenty of time for that to change, and it likely will when Suh finds a new home.
