The Detroit Lions could be on the market for a new defensive coordinator in the coming weeks as Aaron Glenn is expected to be hired to be the head coach of one of the six teams that are looking for their new guy right now.

If and when that happens, there’s a lot of questions from Lions fans about what the team is entitled to draft-wise. The question stems from a rule the NFL added in 2020 that gives teams draft capital when a minority coach or front office member is hired from their team. 2020 Resolution JC-2a states the following.

“The employer-club of a minority employee who has been hired by another club as its Head Coach or Primary Football Executive (General Manager) shall receive Draft choice compensation in the form of a compensatory Draft pick in the third round in each of the next two Drafts for an employee hired as either a Head Coach or Primary Football Executive.”

So there you go. If the Lions were to lose Glenn to another team, they would receive a third-round draft pick in this April’s draft and then another in the 2026 NFL Draft.

It’s a loss for the Lions to lose such a valued coach, but they do gain something they don’t have right now in that third-round pick. As it stands the Lions have the 60th pick in the second round and then don’t pick again until the 131st pick of the fourth-round.

A key note on that third-round pick is that the Lions will have that pick at the end of the third-round per the rule. All compensatory picks go to the end of the round and then are ordered by team records. So the best teams will have later compensatory picks in whatever round they get them in.