It’s not often that the NFL will admit to an error. It happened occasionally under Pete Rozelle, less frequently under Paul Tagliabue and under Roger Goodell, well let’s just say Goodell almost certainly regards himself as more infallible than Pope Francis.
Yet one day after awarding the Steelers a 7th round compensatory selection, the NFL reversed course and announced they should have gotten a 6th rounderer.
This is a good thing, says the blogger who spent three hundred and thirty eight words trying to convince Steelers Nation that a 7th round compensatory selection really was a thing of value. It was and would have been.
- But a 6th round selection is a thing of greater value.
The Steelers cannot trade their 6th round compensatory selection, but having an extra pick in their back pocket can come in handy, particularly on day three of the draft. Moving up in the 5th or even 4th round is a lot easier to do if you deal a 6th round pick than it is with a 7th round pick, and the Steelers can do so knowing that they’ve still got a shot at whomever they were looking at in the 6th round.
- And you can find good value in the compensatory portion of the 6th round.
The Steelers took Daniel McCullers with their 6th round compensatory pick in 2014, and they used their 6th round compensatory pick on Vince Williams in 2013. Likewise, Ryan Mundy was a 6th round compensatory pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Now Mundy disappointed as a Steeler, but Ryan Mundy has done quite well for himself since leaving the team.
- And of course Antonio Brown was the Steelers second pick in the 6th round of the 2010 NFL Draft
I rest my case. An extra 6th round draft pick is more than worth having.
