The losses of March 2022 did have an upside for the draft of 2023.
The Cardinals added three compensatory picks for last year's key free agent losses, the NFL officially announced on Thursday. It means the team will have eight total picks in April's draft, which begins on the 27th.
The Cards got an extra third-round pick -- 96th overall, the top comp pick available -- for wide receiver Christian Kirk's departure to Jacksonville. They got a fifth-round pick -- 168th overall -- for linebacker Chandler Jones going to Las Vegas. And they got sixth-rounder -- 213th overall -- for running back Chase Edmonds signing with Miami. (Edmonds was later traded to Denver.)
The Cardinals have the No. 3 pick in the draft, and their own picks are all the third in those particular rounds.
The Cardinals have eight picks in April's draft total. They own their own picks in rounds 1-4 and round 6. Their original fifth-round pick was traded to Buffalo in exchange for offensive lineman Cody Ford, and their seventh-round pick went to the Raiders in exchange for cornerback Treyvon Mullen.
"Hopefully we never have (third) again," GM Monti Ossenfort said. "The key is not wanting to be here. A lot of losses had to go into us being the No. 3 pick. But with a new group coming in here, the No. 3 pick represents an opportunity. It's a chance to get a premium player. Who knows, there may be value in having someone coming up to trade for the pick.
"It'll be the same discussion each night (of the draft). On Friday, we'll have the third pick of the second round, and it kind of resets."
Compensatory picks are determined through an equation based on a team's lost qualifying free agents, those signed, and then the contracts and production of those players.
