What Is the NFL Supplemental Draft? How It Works, When It Is, and More

Everyone’s focused on the main NFL Draft, but there’s another selection event teams can add talent through. It disappeared for three years, but the NFL Supplemental Draft came back in 2023, just three months after the main draft.

Here’s a dive into the history of the NFL Supplemental Draft, how it works, and when it is.

A Brief History of the NFL Supplemental Draft

The main, more well-known NFL Draft is one of the most popular events on the NFL calendar, with more than 50 million viewers over three days. The NFL Supplemental Draft, however, has existed for a long time, too, beginning in 1977 as another avenue for draft-eligible players to enter the league.

For the first 13 years, from 1977 until 1990, only players who either graduated or used all of their eligibility were able to take part in the Supplemental Draft. However, since 1993, the NFL has allowed players who faced other adversity, including disciplinary reasons, to petition the league for Supplemental Draft entry as well.

Al Hunter, a former Notre Dame running back, was the first player ever taken in the Supplemental Draft. The Seattle Seahawks used a fourth-round pick on Hunter, who was suspended from the team for disciplinary reasons but was already draft-eligible since he was out of high school for three years.

In total, there have been 46 players drafted in the Supplemental Draft since 1977. The most recent draft pick was former safety Jalen Thompson out of Washington State in 2019. The Arizona Cardinals used a fifth-round pick on Thompson. No players were selected in the 2023 edition.

There have been eight first-round picks used in the Supplemental Draft, including Pro Bowlers such as quarterback Bernie Kosar, running back Bobby Humphrey, and wide receiver Rob Moore. The best Supplemental Draft pick of all time, however, was former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Cris Carter, who was a fourth-round selection in 1987.

How Does the Supplemental Draft Work?

While the main draft works from worst team to best team, the Supplemental Draft has a different way of determining which teams select first. It uses a tier system that splits the league’s 32 teams into three different buckets. Once they’re in tiers, a weighted lottery is used to determine the order within the tiers, favoring teams with worse records.

Here are the three tiers that are used to group teams, with the records pulled from the previous season:

1) Non-playoff teams with six or fewer regular-season wins

2) Non-playoff teams with more than six regular-season wins

3) The 14 teams that made the playoffs

The draft uses a bidding system where teams are blind, not knowing what other teams have submitted. The team with the bid in the highest round with the highest pick will acquire the player and forfeit the corresponding pick in the following NFL Draft.

For example, a player selected in the first round of the 2023 Supplemental Draft would cost the team their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

When Is the 2024 NFL Supplemental Draft, and Why Do Players Enter It?

The 2023 NFL Supplemental Draft was on Tuesday, July 11. However, there is no date yet for the 2024 iteration — if there is one.

Players have entered the Supplemental Draft for a variety of reasons. Of the 46 players selected, 23 had off-field circumstances that influenced their decision to enter the NFL. The majority, however, were academically ineligible, and before the NCAA transfer portal’s expansion, the next-best option was to enter the NFL.

KEEP READING: Ranking the Top 10 NFL Supplemental Draft Picks, Including WRs Cris Carter and Josh Gordon

In recent years, disciplinary reasons that became prevalent after the deadline to declare for the main draft have been the driving force for most to jump into the Supplemental Draft. The last player drafted in the Supplemental Draft without such a background was former Florida State guard Milford Brown in 2002.

Before 2002, it was more frequent for players to enter the Supplemental Draft after using up their competition eligibility but not filing for the NFL Draft in time. The 14 players selected since Brown each had off-field situations that influenced their decisions to enter the NFL during the summer months.

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