NFL Supplemental Draft returns for 2023
The NFL Supplemental Draft will return this summer, per a report from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, and will be held on July 11th. This marks the first time since 2019 that the NFL has held a supplemental draft. New York Giants fans are likely at least passingly familiar with the supplemental draft, though that has more to do with the Giants’ poor history with selecting players in the supplemental draft.
The NFL traditionally holds a supplemental draft for players who are NFL eligible but find themselves in unusual circumstances. For instance, if a player didn’t enter that year’s NFL Draft in April, but was later ruled ineligible for the coming season. As such, the supplemental draft has significantly different rules than the regular draft.
For starters, individual players who are eligible to play in the NFL (at least three years removed from high school) need to petition the NFL in order to be admitted into the Supplemental Draft.
Teams themselves are separated into three groups. The first is made of teams with six or fewer wins the previous season, the second group is non-playoff teams with more than six wins. The final group is the playoff teams.
Team position within those groups is determined by a weighted lottery.
From there, interested teams essentially hold a silent auction for the players who were admitted into the NFL. Teams submit a bid — using the next year’s draft picks — on the player (or players) in question. They’re awarded to the team that submits the highest round bid, or to the team that drew the higher lottery position if there are multiple bids in the same round.
As Giants fans may remember, the team bid a 2019 third round pick on Sam Beal in the 2018 Supplemental Draft. That was was the highest pick, and he was awarded to the Giants.
Right now, as of this writing, former Purdue wide receiver Milton Wright is the only player who has been admitted into the 2023 Supplemental Draft. Wright was ruled academically ineligible for the 2022 season, but was productive in 2021. The 6-foot-3, 195-pound receiver had 57 catches for 732 yards and 7 touchdowns, making him the Boilermakers’ second-leading receiver behind 2023 third-round pick David Bell.
The Giants have limited depth on the perimeter of their offense behind Isaiah Hodgins and Darius Slayton, so it’s certainly possible that they’ll put in a bid on Wright. Joe Schoen has shown a willingness to use every available avenue to add talent to the roster, and given that this is the first supplemental draft in four years, we just don’t know if he is open to spending future picks on rookie this year. It would, though, be a bit of a surprise if they used a high pick if they do submit a bid.
Source: Big Blue View
