NFL Supplemental Draft 2013: Explaining Rules and Order of Picks

The 2013 NFL supplemental draft is the final offseason activity for teams before the start of training camp. This year's supplemental draft will kick off on Thursday, July 12, at 1 p.m. ET, with six eligible players up for grabs.   

Here's a quick look at the six draft-eligible players, as reported by Rob Rang of CBS Sports:

• James Boyd, DE, UNLV
• Nate Holloway, DT, UNLV
• Toby Jackson, DE, Central Florida
• DeWayne Peace, WR, Houston
• O.J. Ross, WR, Purdue
• Damond Smith, DB, South Alabama

For a full report on each of these players, check out Bleacher Report's Lead NFL draft writer Matt Miller's supplemental draft breakdown. 

Eligibility 

These six players were ineligible for the 2013 NFL draft for various reasons, and they have forfeited their NCAA eligibility by declaring for the supplemental draft, as detailed by NFLRegionalCombines.com:

Any player who is ineligible for the principal draft, but who becomes eligible after such draft and prior to the beginning of the League's next regular season, is not eligible to be signed as a free agent but is eligible for a supplemental selection procedure conducted by the Commissioner.

A few players in recent years have made their way into the NFL via the supplemental draft, including Josh Gordon (2012), Terrelle Pryor (2011) and Ahmad Brooks (2006). Bernie Kosar, Cris Carter and Brian Bosworth are the most notable players to be brought into the NFL through this draft. 

Since 1977, when the NFL held its first supplemental draft, there have only been 42 players selected. Many of the players who declare for this draft feature red flags for prior drug use, academic struggles or various brushes with the law, among other concerns about their future in the NFL. 

Such red flags mean that these players pose varying degrees of risk, which is compounded even more when considering the price teams must pay to land them in this draft.

Risk

These players are in the supplemental draft for a reason. 

Of the six players eligible in this year's draft, five of them have struggled to adhere to team rules in one way or another. 

Nate Holloway left UNLV due to "undisclosed reasons;" Toby Jackson struggled with academic eligibility throughout his college career and was ineligible for his senior season; DeWayne Peace was recently let go at Houston after he became academically ineligible; O.J. Ross was suspended twice by Purdue; and Damond Smith has two glaring red flags on his record—a fight with a teammate and a reported failed drug test. 

In addition to the obvious risk associated with players who have these kinds of issues, there's another reason most players who declare for the supplemental draft don't get selected. 

When a team does decide to gamble on a player in this draft, it forfeits a corresponding selection in the regular draft the following year. For example, if the New York Jets took a chance on receiver O.J. Ross and selected him with a sixth-round pick, the team would then lose its sixth-round pick in the 2014 NFL draft.

Draft Order

Unlike the NFL's regular draft, the supplemental draft uses a lottery system.

As detailed by Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith before last year's supplemental draft, the lottery is broken down into three tiers.

Teams with six victories or less in the previous year are put into the first tier and a lottery is held. The team with the fewest amount of wins will have its name put into the drawing 32 times, the next-worst team will have its name entered 31 times, etc. 

Teams with seven or more wins that failed to make the playoffs are featured in the second tier. The team with the worst record will have its name entered 22 times, the team with the next-worst record will have its name entered 21 times, etc.  

The final tier features the teams that made it into the playoffs, and the format is exactly the same. The lottery determines where teams pick in all three tiers.

Here's a look at which tier each team will be selecting from in this year's supplemental draft:

• Tier 1: Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans
• Tier 2: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, Chicago Bears
• Tier 3: Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos

Once the lottery is concluded, the draft commences in much the same way as it does during the regular draft, with 32 picks per round and seven rounds of action. Teams will either elect to make a selection or they will pass.

Unlike the regular draft, this one isn't watched by millions, and it won't take three days to complete. Given the fact that there isn't a player of Josh Gordon's caliber in this year's draft, it won't be a shock if the draft ends with just one or two players being selected in the sixth or seventh round. 

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