Colts awarded fourth round compensatory pick in 2017 NFL Draft

There was a good Friday afternoon news dump for the Colts and many other NFL teams this afternoon, as the NFL officially announced the 32 compensatory picks that have been awarded for the 2017 NFL Draft.

The Colts have been awarded an additional fourth round pick, which will be the 38th pick in the fourth round and the 144th pick in the draft overall.

Last offseason, general manager Ryan Grigson was very aware of the compensatory picks and wanted to make moves to set them up to get some this year, and the loss of Coby Fleener in free agency did so. Fleener signed a five-year, $36 million deal with the Saints last year with $18 million guaranteed, paying him an average of $7.2 million per year. That factored heavily into the compensatory pick formula.

The other departures that counted for the Colts in the compensatory pick formula were the losses of Jerrell Freeman and Dwight Lowery, but the signings of Patrick Robinson and Scott Tolzien canceled those out so that the Colts wound up with only one additional pick.

The Colts were one of 16 teams to receive a compensatory pick this year, and the Bengals, Browns, Broncos, and Chiefs received the most with four each. For the Colts, this is the 22nd compensatory pick they’ve received since 1994. This year, those picks are more valuable than ever as they’re tradable for the first time, so the Colts have more resources to use if they want to make moves regarding draft picks.