The CBA gives the NFL the option of holding a supplemental draft each summer. For a third straight year, the league has opted to nix the event.
The NFL informed its teams no supplemental draft will take place, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The event, which has fallen in stature compared to where it was in the 1980s and ’90s, has not been held since 2019.
In existence for players whose eligibility statuses have changed in the offseason, the supplemental draft has sent high-quality talent to the NFL. Modern-era players like Josh Gordon and current Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson have used the summer event to bound toward regular NFL work, but few such success stories exist compared to the ones that emerged decades ago.
Bernie Kosar (1985), Cris Carter (1987), Brian Bosworth (’87), Bobby Humphrey (’89) and Rob Moore (’90) each entered the league through the supplemental draft, with Carter going on to the Hall of Fame after an atypical start to his career. The Browns’ machinations to land Kosar represent one of the more unique ways a team has acquired a franchise quarterback.
Terrelle Pryor and Ahmad Brooks also represent modern examples of NFL regulars entering the league this way. Thompson, whom the Cardinals chose with a fifth-round supplemental pick in 2019, has made 25 starts in three seasons.
With the expanded size of rosters and practice squads there really isn’t the need for a supplemental draft now. Maybe that changes when the league moves on to an 18 game schedule.
How is any of this related to the supplemental draft and its purpose?
Remember when the Cowboys drafted Steve Walsh in the supplemental draft to compete with Troy Aikman? Anyways, the supplemental draft seemed pointless to me since all the players drafted in it would’ve been drafted anyways in the next year’s draft.
So rather than give players immediate recourse/relief if they were kicked out of the NCAA (and one of the main reasons they’re there in the first place is due an NFL draft eligibility rule about needing to be three years removed from their high school graduating class), they should be forced to wait a year to enter the following draft?
Turns out it’s the first thing they couldn’t milk annoyingly into a 3 day event with red carpet and televised on three networks. Even more surprised there weren’t more fans of the idiot variety clambering for just that. The NFL finally got something right when it comes to oversaturation; it’s like a baby taking first steps.
This is only a temporary disappointment for fans of the idiot variety…they are very excited about the league partnership with the XFL.
I am an idiot and I endorse this message
They forgot Mike Wahl on that list who also became an All-Pro with the Green Bay Packers