2014 NFL Draft: Houston Texans Compensatory Pick Projections

During the 2013 NFL offseason, your Houston Texans saw many of their twenty (20) free agents depart for cities housing teams that would not go 2-14 in 2013. Now that the 2013 season belongs to the ages, the question becomes whether those departures will result in the Texans scoring any compensatory picks in the 2014 NFL Draft.

By way of refresher, recall that as a result of losing free agents after the 2012 season (including but not limited to Mario Williams, Mike Brisiel, and Joel Dreessen), the Texans were treated to two (2) compensatory picks in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Fun fact: The first and more valuable of those picks (95th overall) was used to select Sam Montgomery. Brilliant!.

With the thought of adding another Sonic Sam bouncing around in your head, what compensatory picks should you expect the good guys to have in 2014? Jimmy Kempski of Philly.com (through the wizardry of his friend Craig Turner) projects the Texans will score three (3) compensatory picks in the 2014 NFL Draft. The details:

5 – Houston – Connor Barwin
5 – Houston – Glover Quin
7 – Houston – Donnie Jones

The logic:

Houston
Lost: Barwin ($6m), Casey ($4.8m), Quin ($4.7m), Forsett ($1m), Ball ($1m), D. Jones ($905k)
Signed: Reed ($5m), Lechler ($1.8m), G. Jones ($1m)

Thus, the tea leaves portend that your Houston Texans will be treated to a pair of extra fifth rounders and one extra seventh rounder as a result of their 2013 free agent losses. Compensatory picks will be officially announced by the NFL in March, so you have until then to come to grips with the fact that Ed Reed leaving Baltimore for Houston could very well result in the Ravens (Gary Kubiak's new employer, naturally) getting an additional fifth round pick.

The Ravens are playing chess while the Texans play checkers. Well played, Baltimore. Well played.