The decision by beleaguered quarterback Brendan Sorsby to declare for the NFL supplemental draft has triggered a fresh round of questions about the rarely used offseason process for making prospects who weren’t eligible for the primary draft available to the league at large.
Before we dust off the rule book and dive in, here's the background:
Sorsby, after transferring earlier this year from Cincinnati to Texas Tech, was banished from competition by the
NCAA for gambling activity that included wagers on his own team while on the roster at Indiana in 2022.
After spending a month in a residential treatment program for a diagnosed addiction that led to thousands of bets while in college on sporting events worth at least $90,000, Sorsby sued the NCAA and gained a court-ordered reinstatement that prompted nationwide backlash toward Texas Tech. The controversy led Sorsby to enter this special draft session that has not been used to select a player since 2019. The deadline for filing is on Monday.
After prematurely signing with an agent, Cris Carter was ruled ineligible for his senior season at Ohio State and later picked by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1987 supplemental draft that started with Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth being selected by the Seattle Seahawks.
Carter was waived by the Eagles right before the 1990 season in one of the NFL's all-time roster mistakes and claimed by the Minnesota Vikings, with whom he built a Hall of Fame career and still ranks sixth in league history with 1,101 regular-season receptions.
Article 6 of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement dictates that college players excluded from the pool for the principal draft in the spring — for circumstances like losing academic eligibility or suspension for an off-the-field issue — can apply for selection in a supplemental draft held during the summer. If they're eligible for the regular draft, they're not allowed to simply skip it in favor of the supplemental draft that was created in 1977.
If no players file for it, then it doesn't happen. Even if players are entered, the supplemental draft takes place only if a team actually wants to pick.
Teams are placed into three groups: those that won six or fewer games in the previous season, the remaining clubs that missed the playoffs and those that made the playoffs. The league holds a lottery, weighted in favor of the teams with the worst records, to order selection within each group.
It’s essentially a bidding process conducted by the commissioner, with interested clubs declaring which round — one through seven — they’re willing to select the player in. If players go undrafted, they’re then eligible to sign with any club as a free agent.
If awarded the player, a team then forfeits its selection in that particular round in the regular draft the following year. The Seahawks, for example, put a first-round bid on Bosworth and thus lost their first-round pick in the 1988 draft.
The most recent player picked in a supplemental draft was safety Jalen Thompson, who went to the Arizona Cardinals on a fifth-round bid in 2019 after he violated an NCAA rule and had his final season at Washington State wiped out. Thompson has had a solid career, starting 87 games over seven years.
The Cleveland Browns got a bargain in 2012 with a second-round bid for wide receiver Josh Gordon, though his time with the club was cut short by multiple substance abuse policy violations. Gordon, who was suspended for marijuana use the year before while at Baylor, transferred to Utah but decided not to play there and enter the supplemental draft instead.
After a promising rookie season, Gordon was an All-Pro selection in 2013, leading the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards.
In 2011, the Oakland Raiders used a third-round pick in the supplemental draft for Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who left college after a memorabilia-for-cash scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job.
Other supplemental draft picks who enjoyed productive NFL careers included two-time All-Pro defensive tackle Jamal Williams (1998, Chargers, second round), 1997 league receiving yards leader Rob Moore (1990, Jets, first round), 1990 Pro Bowl running back Bobby Humphrey (1989, Broncos, first round) and standout quarterback Bernie Kosar (1985, Browns, first round).
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