Actually that is how it works.
Of course either based off of contract, but that doesn't mean we were one less contracted player away from one round higher.
Very weird reply, because so confident yet so wrong.
If you somehow thing there are a certain number of fixed picks per round and your comp pick could "slide up" a round (the Cowboys were somehow robbed this year?), then you don't have it right. Explain your equal distribution of comp picks per round in 2017:
https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/NFL-Announces-32-Compensatory-Draft-Choices-to-16-Clubs.aspx
There are 32 picks handed out each year. That doesn't include the newly instituted coaching/GM picks this season which bumped the total up a few. The top 32 are handed out based on a formula largely based on salary. If the top 32 didn't meet the third round threshold, they aren't going to just hand out 3rd round picks to the top comp pick team because it fits a quota.
In 2016 there were only 4 third rounders awarded:
https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/NFL-ANNOUNCES-33-COMPENSATORY-DRAFT-CHOICES-TO-13-CLUBS.aspx
In 2013 there were only 3 third rounders:
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-announces-compensatory-picks-for-2013-nfl-draft/
In 2019 there were only 3 fifth rounders. The Pats didn't get ripped off expecting their next comp pick in the 6th round to magically move up because of the teams above them. Danny Amendola's contract that year with the Dolphins wasn't high enough to justify a 5th rounder, no matter what had happened to the players with larger contracts above him.
If Robert Quinn had signed a larger deal, or if he'd met much greater playing time thresholds then there was the possibility of him qualifying for a third rounder. It wouldn't have mattered if Dante Fowler had stayed with the Rams and not given them a 3rd rounder.