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Jets general manager John Idzik said he considered the bounty of compensatory picks he stood to receive this year when making free-agent decisions a year ago.

(NYJets.com)

FLORHAM PARK -- The Jets head into next week's NFL draft with 12 selections, a haul that resulted from the way they jettisoned free agents last year, plus one pick they got from trading some cornerback whose last name rhymes with Beavis.

All told, the Jets wound up with a maximum of four compensatory picks—only the Ravens were awarded as many for this year's draft.

Compensatory picks are added on to the end of rounds three through seven, and they're awarded based on a secret formula that factors in salary, playing time, and postseason honors. They cannot be traded away.

This year, the Jets got those four picks because they lost Yeremiah Bell, Mike DeVito, Shonn Greene, Dustin Keller, LaRon Landry, and Matt Slauson last year in free agency, while adding Antwan Barnes and Mike Goodson.

"The compensatory draft-pick system is always in your mind," general manager John Idzik said at a press conference Wednesday at Jets HQ. "That's a factor—it's not the determinant, but it's a factor."

All those compensatories, plus the additional fourth-round choice for last year's trade of Darrelle Revis to the Bucs, give the Jets six picks in the first four rounds—one each in the first three, plus three in the fourth—one in the fifth, four in the sixth, and one in the seventh.

The Jets last made 12 selections in 1998—where have you gone, Dorian Boose?—and as recently as 2009 they only made three picks.

Not surprisingly, Idzik would not reveal whether he planned to make selections with all 12 picks, or if the non-compensatory picks would be used as trade bait. He does like the flexibility and maneuverability he now has, however.

"I think it's all dependent on [how we] group our players," Idzik said. "In a given round, if you have a group of players that you think are fairly equitable, that you like, that you feel like you may be able to trade down and still get somebody within that group, you may do it. On the flipside, if there's only one or two players at that stage in the draft that you really covet, and he may not get to your pick, you may entertain trading up.

"The other side of that ledger is, one, you have to have a suitor on the other end, and then the compensation—is it right, is it right for you? But, yeah, having 12 picks, it's certainly nice to have."

For a complete explanation of this year's NFL compensatory picks, see below.