What Is the NFL's Supplemental Draft?

The National Football League (NFL) holds an annual draft each April, allowing NFL teams to choose new players (mainly from college football teams) for their roster. When the draft is over, teams still have a chance to acquire college football players, but the only way to obtain an underclassman who did not register for the NFL draft is through the supplemental draft.

  1. Definition

    • The supplemental NFL draft allows players who did not enroll for the NFL draft in April to be drafted before the upcoming football season. All college football players who are ineligible to play in the upcoming college football season may enroll in the supplemental draft.

    Date

    • The supplemental NFL draft is held sometime between the NFL draft and the first game of the NFL season. The date varies each year but usually occurs between the first of April and end of August of each year.

    Draft Order

    • Only those NFL teams with six wins or less have a chance at the No. 1 pick. After those teams are randomly drawn for the top spots in the draft, two other groups---non-playoff and playoff teams---are ordered the same way behind them.

    Draft Process

    • Teams submit a list of players they're interested in to the league and what round in the supplemental draft they would like to draft that player. This is known as a blind bid process. If a team is the first team in the draft order to bid on a player, they get the right to sign that player.

    Effects On The NFL Draft

    • If a team wins the rights to a player, the team must give up a pick in the next year's NFL draft. The round that the team won the supplemental draft player is the round in which they lose their next season's NFL draft pick.

    Supplemental NFL Draft Is Optional

    • Teams are not required to place a bid in the NFL supplemental draft. If a team does not win the rights to a player, it is not required to give up a draft pick in the next season's NFL draft.