NFL To Hold Supplemental Draft In 2023

For the first time since 2019, NFL teams will be able to add rookies who were not selected in the April draft or signed as undrafted free agents. A supplemental draft will take place this summer, as first reported by Dane Brugler of The Athletic and confirmed (on Twitter) by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The latest edition of the supplemental draft will take place on July 11, giving the league a event to prepare for prior to the start of training camps later that month. The summer event provides an opportunity to join the NFL for players who are deemed ineligible for the regular entry draft (and thus to sign as UDFAs), and it has provided teams a number of high-profile additions over the course of its history.

Cancellations over the past three years have continued a stretch of relative irrelevancy for the supplemental draft, however. Editions have gone by without a single player being selected, and the recent past has seen a limited number of impact players involved. Still, the list of supplemental draft alums includes the likes of Terrelle Pryor and Josh Gordon in 2011 and 2012 and, less recently, Bernie Kosar, Cris Carter, Bobby Humphrey, Rob Moore and Jamal Williams. 

The Cardinals added safety Jalen Thompson in the 2019 supplemental draft, a decision which has proven to be fruitful. Thompson has logged 42 starts across his 54 games in Arizona, and he inked a three-year extension last offseason. That deal may provide incentive for teams around the league to pursue eligible players in this year’s edition of the summer draft. Using a supplemental draft pick in 2023 will cause teams to lose a selection in the equivalent round of the 2024 entry draft.

Players must apply to the NFL to achieve eligibility. The only one who has been approved in that regard so far is former Purdue receiver Milton Wright. The 6-3, 195-pounder registered 1,325 yards and 10 touchdowns on 99 receptions with the Boilermakers between 2019 and 2021. As details on the 2023 edition of the second-tier draft emerge, it will be worth watching to see how many other players become eligible and which ones receive attention from NFL teams.