The NFL shouldn’t have cancelled the supplemental draft
Jul 16, 2020, 6:35 AM
The NFL Supplemental Draft is not very well known in the football world, but it actually has had a huge impact on the history of the NFL. The supplemental draft was created in 1977 for players with unique circumstances that were unable to enter the normal NFL Draft.
For example if a player is suspended, expelled or for some reason lost a year of eligibility in college, they could enter the supplemental draft and compete for a spot on a NFL roster.
Every year, teams have the opportunity to make a bid with on a player using their draft picks and if they are awarded that player with the highest bid, they would end up forfeiting that pick in the following NFL Draft. So how high of a draft pick would teams use? There have been eight total players selected in the first round of the supplemental draft, including the Broncos selecting Bobby Humphrey in 1989. Humphrey would go on and be a Pro Bowl selection along with seven other players. So it’s safe to say that you can find real talent in the supplemental draft.
With the pandemic that the country is currently dealing with, however, the NFL decided it was better to cancel this year’s draft. There’s an issue, though.
The Ivy League and the Patriot League have cancelled all of their fall sports due to the virus, including football. Even though those are small conferences, bigger conferences could end up following the two leagues by canceling their seasons, as well. There’s a chance we won’t see any college football at all this season.
What would happen to those seniors or players that were trying to finish out their career or make one final impression on NFL scouts? It could possibly be over for them!
The NFL could easily have kept the supplemental draft because it’s not a televised event like the normal NFL Draft and of it was, we all know what it could have looked like based of the draft back in April. There is no excuse here for the NFL to say they couldn’t have this year’s supplemental draft.
Just because the country is in a pandemic doesn’t mean the NFL has to end things. If they were able to make adjustments for the draft back in April, they could make simple adjustments for this draft.
The bottom line is that there could have been more players entering this year’s supplemental draft because of certain college conferences taking away their seasons. These student athletes have done nothing wrong. If some of these players were mid-round picks they should be able to play this season and get a real paycheck from an NFL team, but the NFL is taking that away from them in 2020.
