The Detroit Lions didn't make a big deal at the trade deadline on Tuesday and some Lions fans were pretty upset about it.
One of the big reasons why the Lions didn't go out and get one of the premier pass rushers you might have hoped they would get is because they were all on expiring contracts. That means the Lions would have had to give up draft capital for the player and then work out a new contract for them after the season. They'd have to do that while also working out an extension for Jared Goff.
One of the big things I heard from Lions fans was to just use the player for the rest of the year and then let him walk and you get a compensatory pick. A theory I saw more than once was that you trade a third-round pick for Chase Young and then let him walk after the season and get a third-round compensatory pick back. Boom! Nobody gets hurt and everyone is happy.
That's just not how it works. The compensatory pick formula is insane and most people can't figure it out outside of the team the NFL has doing it. We didn't even have an idea of what the formula actually was until 2020 when it was included in the new collective bargaining agreement. Even then it's still not really know and it makes me cross eyed just looking at it.
What I can do is look a the very recent past where teams took in a guy at the deadline and then moved on after the year. Let's see what they gave up and what they actually got.
- In 2018 the Eagles traded a third round pick to the Lions for Golden Tate. They did not bring him back the following year and they got a fourth round compensatory pick.
- In 2019 the 49ers traded a third and a fourth to the Broncos for Emmanuel Sanders. They did not bring him back the next year and they got a fifth round compensatory pick.
- In 2020 the Ravens traded a third and a fifth to the Vikings for Yannick Ngakoue. They only got back a fourth round compensatory pick when he left.
- In 2021 the Rams traded a second and a third for Von Miller. They got a fifth round compensatory pick after Miller left for Buffalo.
You see, it's not that simple. You're always going to get back less than what you gave away. Most of these teams gave away multiple picks and didn't win a championship and walked a way with a much lesser compensatory pick and without the much better picks they traded away.
So having a guy like Chase Young on a nine game rental plus the playoffs isn't really worth it in the end. You either pay him or you get a crappy consolation price.
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