Here is the best breakdown i can find
https://overthecap.com/the-basics-and-methodology-of-projecting-the-nfls-compensatory-draft-picks/
So first off its only dealing with UFAs that are on expiring contracts... so if you cut a guy or let an rfa walk, it doesn’t count at all towards anything
Secondly they assign values to the guys based on how much they sign for, Then rank them by percentile in the league. Once they set values for all the guys you signed and lost they cancel players out
So lets say we lose 4 3rd round comp guys, 2 5th round guys, and 3 7th round comp guys... thats 9 guys lost
So lets also say we sign 1 3rd round comp guy, and 8 super cheap guys that all were like 6 th or seventh comp guys
It would be 9 out, 9 in... the regular comp system wouldn’t award is anything.. there is a separate thing that may award us a seventh rounder based on value lost, but its not allowed to be anything but a seventh...
However if we only signed 1 3rd rounder and 5 of those cheap ufas, we’d get 3 third round picks...
On top of all that the league can only award 32 total comp picks.. so if we qualified for say a third a fourth and two low sevenths and the whole league had 32 comp picks ranked hiGher than our two sevenths, they evaporate into nothing
