Reiss' Pieces - The NFL announced its compensatory draft picks today and the Patriots received three picks -- a third-rounder (No. 97 overall), a fifth-rounder (No. 170 overall) and a sixth-rounder (No. 207) overall. The Patriots were awarded the choices based on losing free agents Asante Samuel, Randall Gay and Donte' Stallworth following the 2007 season. Compensatory selections are picks that the NFL puts in after the standard 32 choices in each round. The Patriots' third-round pick was the highest of the 32 compensatory picks awarded by the NFL. New England now has six selections in the top 100... The Patriots now have a total of 11 picks in the seven-round draft. However, compensatory picks cannot be traded.

For the record, the NFL awards compensatory picks through an elaborate formula that includes salary, playing time, Pro Bowl appearances, awards, and whether you got screwed out of a 1st rounder as part of a ridiculous, politically-motivated witchhunt. Granted, the Pats secondary pretty much got Lance Armstronged last year and they could've used Samuel and Gay, but they obviously picked the opportune time to jettison Stallworth. Yeesh. And you have to love these picks just from a value sense, which is the Patriots drafting mantra. The Pats are heading into the draft with an arsenal of cheap, no-risk mid-round picks at a time when the entire NFL is downsizing and scaling back costs, including three 2nd-rounders. According to an item in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

The latest NFL draft trend is to stockpile picks in the second round. Why?.. there's better value to be found in Round 2 than in Round 1. Players in Round 2 aren't that much less talented, but they come much cheaper.... the average amount of guaranteed money in the contracts of first-round players in 2008 was $11.9 million. The average guarantee in the second round was $1.9 million... So if there's a trend, you know the New England Patriots are at the forefront.

And as they point out, some of those recent 2nd rounders have yielded gold like Donnie Avery, Devin Hester, DeMeco Ryans, Maurice Jones-Drew and others, all at relatively little cost. Those Patriots 3rd, 5th & 6th rounders might not seem like much, but in this economy they're the equivalent of Microsoft opening a customer service office in Dehli; the cheap, competent workforce that will ensure the Pats keep dominating the industry.