Cam and Winston are still free agents

authority of comp pick projections and the most thorough visual of the process.

The Giants lost Landon Collins last spring, for example, at a third-round level to Washington at a $14 million average annual contract value. And though the Giants’ signings of Markus Golden ($3.25 million) and Golden Tate ($9.25 million) canceled out middle-round losses of Jamon Brown ($6.2 million)) and B.W. Webb ($3.5 million), the Giants did not sign a free agent on a comparable level to Collins. So they gained a compensatory pick at No. 99 overall late in the third round of this 2020 draft.

This brings us, then, to why players like Clowney, Winston and Newton, and even lower-priced guys like Everson

Griffen and Logan Ryan may be lingering on the open market.

Korte projects through the formula that just about any free agent who is signing for $14 million per year or higher is counting as a third-rounder, the highest value in the comp pick formula. And players signing for between $10-13 million generally have fourth-round value.

So players like Clowney, Winston and Newton could compromise their new team’s ability to gain a third or fourthround pick in 2021: unless the new club simply waits until April 27 at 4:01 p.m.

Of course, with only a handshake agreement in place until then, it would leave room for other suitors to swoop in and steal those players.

I’ve also talked to others who believe the free agent market has slowed to a crawl simply because top-end talents like Clowney and the Jaguars’ Yannick Ngaouke (franchise-tagged but due to be traded) haven’t found destinations yet. The opinion being that once they do, the dominoes will fall regardless of any deadline.

Still, the point here is it could be a while until these big-time free agents do sign. And among the many possible reasons why, don’t forget about their impact on the 2021 draft.

CORPORATE DISTANCING

The NFL’s owners meetings were originally scheduled to take place early this week at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla., but they were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. So instead, the league and 32 clubs are conducting business remotely.

There was a conference call Monday with team presidents. There will be a conference call on Tuesday with the owners, who are expected to pass a vote to expand the NFL’s playoffs from 12 to 14 teams beginning immediately in 2020, a measure gained in the recent collective bargaining negotiations.

Just one seed in each conference would earn a first-round bye, and it is expected there will be six games on wild card weekend instead of four — three on Saturday and three on Sunday.