LA Rams FA Austin Corbett to Panthers should net 5th-round comp pick

Competing, compensation, compensatory

The LA Rams have learned some hard lessons about the NFL Free Agency market. Teams who are competing for a single player tend to drive up the compensation for that player. If that player is a free agent who used to play for the Rams, then the higher the compensation, the better the compensatory pick

The compensation for offensive guards in this NFL Free Agency market has been fairly robust in the early NFL Free Agency market action. So much so that the LA Rams had reason to believe that losing Corbett to another team may trigger the algorithm to be awarded a 2023 compensatory draft pick. And based on the nearly $10 million APY compensation he will earn by signing with the Panthers, they Rams were correct to think so.

Comp me

Based on the Over The Cap estimated compensatory draft pick estimator for 2023, the LA Rams should anticipate a fifth-round compensatory pick award in 2023 due to losing Austin Corbett to the Carolina Panthers. That will mean that the LA Rams, who acquired Corbett in 2019 for a fifth-round pick from the Cleveland Browns, will have gotten 30 regular season starts and six postseason starts, over 2,740 regular season offensive snaps, and then recouped their initial investment of a fifth-round draft pick.

In other words, the LA Rams traded a fifth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns from OG Austin Corbett. The team enjoyed a starting interior offensive lineman for 2.5 seasons on a rookie’s contract. Now, at the end of that contract, the Rams should expect to be awarded a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft as compensation for losing Corbett in free agency to the Carolina Panthers.

Everyone expected the LA Rams to be unable to sign some of their players. They have lost two players to free agency signings to other teams so far. As it stands now, the LA Rams will benefit from their free agency losses when the NFL calculates the awarding of 2023 compensatory picks.  Now, rest up. Tomorrow is going to be more of the same.