I'm certainly not going to say Ripkowski is better between those two, but I will say I'm very interested in his versatility. Overtime, I think they should keep expanding Ripkowski's role so he has experience at RB, FB and TE... because I think he's versatility enough to play all of them in different packages, and could help the team.
As for the ones that don't count against the compensatory picks... those are the players that were released from their contract before the contract expired. Like the Browns released Tramon Williams and it's being rumored that Devon House could be released this offseason as well.