NFL admits compensatory pick error, Bengals earn third-round selection

When the Cincinnati Bengals were awarded two sixth-round compensatory draft picks by the NFL, questions were immediately raised about whether the league got it wrong.

Specifically, experts pointed out that a mis-weighing of the contracts signed by Jessie Bates (with Atlanta) and Orlando Brown Jr. (with Cincinnati) should have allotted the Bengals an extra third-round pick instead.

And it turns out there was a mistake.

Monday, the NFL re-awarded compensatory picks, revising the original announcement and the Bengals were awarded a third-round pick.

That means the Bengals go from a late-200s pick from the original sixth-round comp pick to No. 97 overall.

In the league’s valuation of contracts on the first pass, it weighed Bates as a fourth-round value, canceling out the comp pick possibility, as Brown was also weighed as a fourth-rounder. In Monday’s revision, it appears Bates is a third-round value, earning the team an additional high pick.

The NFL just announced an update to its compensatory picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, with the most notable change that the Bengals have now been awarded an extra 3rd round pick (97th overall) instead of one of the two 6th round picks it had been previously awarded.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 11, 2024