By Mike Wilkening
July 10, 2007

What do the infamous Brian Bosworth, Giants first-round bust Dave Brown and Chargers All-Pro NT Jamal Williams have in common?

All of them were selected in the NFL’s supplemental draft, the quirky cousin of April’s annual selection meeting. While the April draft continues to grow in popularity, the supplemental draft is an afterthought usually conducted in the quiet weeks leading up to the start of training camp.

This year figures to be no different, with no top prospects making themselves available for the July 12 supplemental draft. Yet, the supplemental draft, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary, has been the backdrop for some of the best and worst of scouting and deal-making — and plenty of controversy.

Draft rules

Per NFL rules, the supplemental draft is open to any player who is “ineligible for the principal selection meeting, but who becomes eligible for a draft after such (a) selection meeting.” In short, it is well-suited for juniors or third-year sophomores who have run into eligibility problems with their schools or have changed their minds about spending another year in college. In order for a player to be selected in the supplemental draft, he must petition the league and be approved by the league office no later than 10 calendar days before the draft.

A weighted lottery separating the 32 NFL teams into three tiers — non-playoff teams with six or fewer wins, non-playoff teams with more than six wins, and playoff teams — is used to determine the selection order of the supplemental draft. Teams are assigned a number of chances to win the supplemental lottery based on where they selected in the April draft. For example, the Raiders, who held the top pick in April, will have 32 chances to snag the top pick in the 2007 supplemental draft. Arizona, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Washington are also in play for the No. 1 pick, with the Lions having the second-best shot at winning the random drawing.

Once the drawing for the worst tier is completed, the NFL will randomly draw the order of picks 10-20 (the other non-playoff teams) and picks 21-32 (postseason qualifiers), with the draft odds for each team again determined by the April draft order.

Like the April draft, the supplemental draft runs seven rounds. Any team that exercises a pick in the supplemental draft forfeits the corresponding selection in the same round of the ’08 principal draft. Players who go unselected become free agents.

Draft origin and history

The NFL held its first supplemental draft in 1977 for Notre Dame RB Al Hunter, who had been ruled ineligible by the school. The Seahawks exercised a fourth-round pick on Hunter, who went on to play four seasons with the club.

The Saints were the first team to exercise a first-round pick in the supplemental draft, selecting Illinois QB Dave Wilson in 1981. Wilson elected to declare for the supplemental draft after a long, ugly fight between the University of Illinois and the Big Ten about the quarterback’s eligibility. At one point, Illinois threatened to secede from the conference, and the school landed on probation. Wilson sued the Big Ten, claiming the conference’s challenge to his eligibility forced him to declare early and hurt his earning potential. Wilson and the conference eventually settled out of court. On the field, Wilson struggled to live up to expectations, throwing only 36 touchdowns in eight seasons with New Orleans.

Four years after the Saints took Wilson, another quarterback caused more of a stir, pitting four teams against each other. The object of their desire: a tall, lanky passer with a funky throwing motion named Bernie Kosar, who led Miami (Fla.) to the national title in 1983.

Kosar announced in March 1985 that he was considering forgoing his final two seasons of eligibility and declaring for the NFL draft. The Browns, in need of a young passer, were enamored with the Boardman, Ohio, native. With the Bills set on taking DE Bruce Smith No. 1 overall, Browns executive vice president Ernie Accorsi worked to acquire the No. 2 overall selection in the April draft from Houston. But the teams couldn’t agree on a deal.

With that avenue blocked, Accorsi struck a deal with the Bills, who also held the first pick in the supplemental draft. Accorsi deduced that if Kosar simply let the deadline to declare for the April draft pass and remained on pace to graduate from Miami (Fla.) in the summer, the quarterback would be eligible for a supplemental draft. On April 9, 1985, Accorsi agreed to send Cleveland’s first-round picks in ’85 and ’86, plus a third-rounder in ’85 and a sixth-rounder in ’86, for the rights to Buffalo’s first overall pick in the supplemental draft. The deal was conditional on Kosar being available in the supplemental draft. Since Kosar had made it no secret that he preferred to play in Cleveland, Accorsi was confident he was poised to acquire his quarterback of the future. 

The Browns-Bills trade angered the Vikings and Oilers, who had swapped draft picks in the April draft on the same day Cleveland and Buffalo made the deal. Minnesota, eyeing Kosar, traded the Nos. 3 and 30 picks in the first round for Houston’s coveted second overall pick.

Commissioner Pete Rozelle summoned representatives from the four teams to New York as he weighed a decision.

“Charges were flying back and forth,” Accorsi recalled, “and I remember looking at Houston and Minnesota near the end and saying rather strongly, ‘This comes down to one basic fact: You two clubs did not know the rules of the National Football League, and we did.’ ”

Rozelle ruled that Kosar could choose either draft. He entered the supplemental draft, and the Browns had their franchise quarterback. Within two seasons, Kosar had led Cleveland to the AFC title game. The league later forbade teams from trading supplemental draft picks, a restriction still in place today.

Not every supplemental-draft story had such a storybook ending. Consider the case of Brian Bosworth, the controversial Oklahoma star linebacker who bypassed the 1987 NFL draft because he wanted to have a say in where he began his NFL career.

Bosworth went so far as to send letters to some clubs requesting that they not take him, lest he sit out the ’87 season in protest. One of the teams Bosworth didn’t want to play for, Seattle, won his rights in the supplemental draft. Yet he relented in August, signing a 10-year, $11 million deal with the Seahawks.

Bosworth, of course, was a tremendous bust. So was Timm Rosenbach, the Cardinals’ No. 1 pick in the supplemental draft in 1989. Rosenbach is best remembered for his mysterious retirement only four years into his NFL career.

The Giants pulled an all-time supplemental-draft stunner in 1992, taking Dave Brown, a Duke junior quarterback, in Round One. Brown, groomed to be the heir apparent to Phil Simms, never panned out. Coincidentally, no team has exercised a first-round supplemental pick since then.

No standouts in the ’07 supplemental draft

The supplemental draft’s importance has been on the wane since 1990, when the NFL finally allowed juniors to declare for the principal draft. As that loophole opened, so ended the need for many underclassmen to wait until summer to be drafted.

Nevertheless, teams can still occasionally find top talent in the supplemental draft. Both the Chargers and the Packers hit it big in 1998. At the beginning of Round Two, the Chargers drafted Oklahoma State NT Jamal Williams, a two-time Pro Bowl performer and one of the league’s best interior linemen. Twenty picks later, Green Bay selected Navy OG Mike Wahle, who has started 112 games in nine seasons with the Packers and the Panthers.

Another recent supplemental selection with a bright future is Bengals MLB Ahmad Brooks. The ’06 third-rounder will move into the starting lineup this year after flashing considerable potential as a rookie.

The ’07 supplemental draft is regarded as light on talent, with Georgia CB Paul Oliver, Maryland OT Jared Gaither, Nebraska OT Chris Patrick and Utah State DT Brian Soi noteworthy among the 11 prospects eligible for selection. The others are Morgan State DT Robert Armstrong, Florida State DT Clifton Dickson, Central Missouri DB RoShawn Marshall, Glendale (Ariz.) Community College WR Eric McCain, Connecticut DB Donta’ Moore, East Central (Okla.) OT Aaron Turner and Texas State-San Marcos LB Mark Washington. (Click here for Nolan Nawrocki's scouting reports on the 11 eligible players.)

To date, Oliver has been the prospect who has drawn the most attention, but he ran the equivalent of a 4.7 40-yard dash at his workout on what scouts called a fast track. Oliver could make it as a cover-2 cornerback, but only if he learns to play smarter and more physical, according to evaluators.

Gaither’s athleticism could convince a team to roll the dice in the first three rounds, but his technique needs work, and he’s best-suited at right tackle. Patrick’s short arms and a lack of speed could necessitate a move inside in the pros. Soi has potential as a two-gap D-lineman. 

The boom-or-bust nature of the supplemental draft is not lost on scouts and executives.

Said one evaluator, “What you are going to find in the supplemental (drafts) almost always will be players with warts. They flunked out, they’ve been in trouble or cannot stay out of trouble. You’re usually looking at renegades … players who are difficult to manage.”

Certainly, the supplemental draft is the long road into the NFL. And it’s a path not without its smashing successes and spectacular failures.

All-time supplemental draft selections

Related Articles:

Scouting reports on 11 eligible players
By Nolan Nawrocki, July 8, 2007

Basics of 2007 supplemental draft
By PFW staff, July 5, 2007