No player has been taken in the NFL’s supplemental draft since Jalen Thompson in 2019.
The NFL supplemental draft is typically a summer draft in which players who were ineligible for the spring draft can join the league as rookies. Usually, an academic or off-the-field issue leads to a player joining the supplemental draft pool, such as Terrelle Pryor’s suspension for receiving tattoos in exchange for autographs.
These players have to apply to join the NFL’s supplemental pool and are bid on by NFL teams with future draft picks. For example, if the Green Bay Packers wanted to place a first-round bid on a player in 2024, they would then have to give up their 2025 pick if they were awarded that player.
There will be no 2024 supplemental draft, though, according to a memo that was sent to all 32 of the league’s clubs. This isn’t uncommon, as the last player to be selected in the supplemental draft was safety Jalen Thompson, one of the NFL’s highest-paid slot defenders, in 2019.
The NFL has actively tried to shy away from holding supplemental drafts over recent seasons, as the extra year of eligibility that college athletes who were rostered during the 2020 COVID season has thrown chaos into college sports. From 2020 to 2022, the league has not held a supplemental draft at all. Last year, two players were in the draft pool, but neither were selected.
Beyond the extra year of eligibility, there are also other reasons for the lack of players in the supplemental pool. First, there are spring football players, veterans who have played at a professional level, who are now being used to backfill rosters — particularly 90-man offseason rosters — more than ever. On top of that, college players now have a mode to get paid: NIL — name, image and likeness. Due to the fact that college players can make money, the 2024 NFL Draft saw the fewest underclassmen declare for the draft in over a decade. Be it the tougher competition to make NFL rosters or that players can freely transfer and create bidding wars between college programs, more college football players are electing to stay in school that extra season.
The biggest winners in all this are the league’s scouts, who are now officially off until training camp starts again in late July.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login