Chicago Bears predicted to gain these compensatory picks in 2021 NFL Draft

With the 2020 NFL Draft officially over, we can already start looking ahead to the 2021 draft class. How many picks with the Chicago Bears have?

Whoa. Ryan Pace traded away a future fourth-round draft pick to select Trevis Gipson in the fifth round. Why on earth is Pace continuing to trade away the Chicago Bears’ future assets? Well, in this case, it could be because the Bears are predicted to earn three compensatory picks in 2021.

Today marked the end of the compensatory eligible free agents. What does this mean? Well, from this point on, whoever teams add to their roster will not affect the formula used to determine compensatory picks for next year’s draft. What does this mean for the Chicago Bears?

Over The Cap does a great job of tracking and predicting which teams will receive a compensatory pick for each year. Currently, there are 43 eligible compensatory picks, however, the NFL only awards 32. Teams are also only allowed to earn four compensatory picks each season. How many of the 43 eligible compensatory picks are the Chicago Bears projected to earn?

If we look at the cancellation chart, the Bears could potentially earn up to four compensatory draft picks. They lost five compensatory eligible draft picks and gained one. Nick Kwiatkoski went to the Las Vegas Raiders, but the Chicago Bears signed Robert Quinn. These two free agents cancel one another.

Nick Williams, however, brings in a potential sixth-round pick. Williams had a strong 2019 campaign with the Bears after Akiem Hicks went down with an injury. He was awarded a two-year, $10 million dollars deal with the Lions. He brings the best chance of the Bears earning one of the four potential compensatory picks as his “value” is the highest.

After Williams is Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Many had hoped Clinton-Dix would re-sign with the Bears. Even Clinton-Dix made it known he wanted to stay here in Chicago. Instead, the Bears let him seek a deal in free agency and he moved on to play for the Dallas Cowboys on another one-year deal. The Bears will at least gain something from the Clinton-Dix loss, he too is projected to earn Ryan Pace a sixth-round pick.

Chase Daniel is the third option at a compensatory pick. Just like Williams, Daniel moved on to play for the Detroit Lions. He will slot in as the backup to Matthew Stafford. Daniel was as good as a backup as you could expect, but he was never a guy to push Mitchell Trubisky. The Bears decided to part ways and they now hope to see another sixth-round pick in return.

The one pick that the team will likely not see is a seventh-round pick from losing Kevin Pierre-Louis in free agency. Like Clinton-Dix, Pierre-Louis signed a one year deal this offseason. He is moving on from Chicago to play for Washington. His value is so low though in the compensatory calculations that the pick he returns to Chicago will not likely make the top 32 that are actually awarded to teams. That said, the team has a strong chance of earning three sixth-rounders.

With the fact Ryan Pace likely knew that he would be seeing these picks coming his way next season, it makes sense that he felt it okay to be more aggressive in the later rounds. More could develop with the compensatory picks as the season progresses, but the team should be a lock for at least two of those three in my opinion.