One of the most unheard of, and quite frankly most unused ways for NFL eligible college players to enter the league is through the supplemental draft. This draft is formed so that underclassmen who did not put in a request to enter the league draft process, but are ineligible to play their next college season, have an unforeseen path into the NFL. It also features players from Canadian colleges, who often are not able to be enrolled in the normal NFL draft. This takes places after the regular NFL draft, which features a normal seven round system.

So how does this whole uncommon draft process thing work? Let’s break it down. The NFL uses a weighted three step system to determine the order of the teams drafting. Teams with 6 or less wins are able to be involved in the first round of lottery for the top number of picks. The catch is that the worse the record, the better advantage you have in the process. The second lottery involves non-playoff teams that had more than six wins. They follow the same advantage system. The third and final lottery involves the 12 playoff teams and once again, they follow the same advantage system.

Once the lottery plays out, each team, in private, submits the player/s they are interested in and what round they would like to choose them in. There are 7 rounds, but this is just so different teams can say where, in the normal draft, they believe they would have taken the player. The team that submits the highest round(ex: I choose Walter Payton in the 2nd round, while another team takes him in the third) would be rewarded him because they value him more. If two teams both choose the same player in the same round, then whoever had the highest pick from the lottery would be rewarded the player. The only catch to the supplement draft is that whatever round you take a player in, is a round you lose in the following years regular NFL draft.

The supplement draft is one of the most unique drafts in all of sports. It has featured hall of famer Chris Carter to rising star Terrell Pryor. Simply stated though, it is not used often. It almost always features players that turn out to be busts, or players that simply go off to the CFL(Canadian Football League.) Teams do not want to risk their top picks in the regular NFL draft, when they know that if they truly wanted a player from the supplement they could just sign him because he most likely won’t be picked. The draft is not going anywhere fast, but it needs to be fixed so that it does not affect the following years draft. Otherwise, the draft is just false hope for players hoping to live out their dreams in the NFL.