Drafting isn't over quite yet
By Gil Brandt
Special to NFL.com
(June 27, 2003) -- On July 10, the NFL will commence the 27th annual Supplemental Draft. It's just like the Annual Player Selection Meeting held every year in New York (also known as the NFL Draft ), but with a few subtle differences ...
Every year, over 200 players are picked in the NFL Draft. There have been a total of 32 players taken overall in the previous 26 supplemental drafts.
Supplemental drafts occur at varying times, but usually in the summer. There was one during the 2002 season, which was unique. There have been multiple drafts in the same year -- they had four of them in 1985.
Instead of over 400 players to choose from, usually there is only a handful. Sometimes, there are none.
Teams can opt to not make a pick if they so desire.
There's no glitz or glamour. There's no commissioner's podium (or commissioner). There's no jersey-holding, no green room, no TV coverage and no media session.
But otherwise, it's the same.
Supplemental drafts got started in 1977 when Al Hunter, a running back from Notre Dame, was declared scholastically ineligible to play college football. Essentially, Hunter had nowhere to play except for the NFL. So instead of waiting until the 1978 NFL Draft, the league chose to have an extra draft just for him.
Since then, numerous players have been available in the supplemental draft for a bevy of reasons. Ultimately, if a player was no longer eligible to play on the college level and missed the deadline for the NFL Draft, he could be picked here.
Noah Happe will leave Oregon State to try to catch on in the NFL as a defensive end or long snapper.
Here's how it worked: The NFL would pull names out of a hat to determine the draft order. They would then go down the list, offering each team the chance to make a selection. A team got the chance every round to make its pick. If a team made a pick, they had to forfeit a pick in the subsequent draft -- the bigger draft with the college players. Sometimes, rounds would go by where nobody made a pick. Sometimes the entire draft would go by without a player being picked.
Nowadays it still works the same way, but instead of pulling names out of a hat, the NFL uses the previous year's draft order. The Bengals will get the first chance to pick someone from this year's pool.
Hunter was picked in the fourth round by the Seattle Seahawks. So if you ever looked at the 1978 draft and wondered why the Seahawks didn't have a pick in the fourth round, now you know why. The Texans forfeited one of their sixth-rounders because they selected OL Milford Brown in last year's supplemental draft.
Granted, Hunter and Brown are two examples, but neither of them evoke Hall of Fame thoughts. Believe it or not, there have been some players picked in the supplemental draft that have gone on to have great NFL careers. Any ardent Philadelphia or Minnesota fans would know receiver Cris Carter was a fourth-round supplemental pick of the Eagles.
Teams haven't shied away from using a first-round pick in these drafts either. In fact, 25 percent of all supplemental selections are first-rounders. Five quarterbacks, one receiver, one running back and one linebacker have made up this group. Check out who's on this list -- you might recognize a few names:
Year Player College Pos. Team
1981 Dave Wilson Illinois QB New Orleans
1985 Bernie Kosar Miami QB Cleveland
1987 Brian Bosworth Oklahoma LB Seattle
1989 Steve Walsh Miami QB Dallas
1989 Timm Rosenbach Wash. State QB Phoenix
1989 Bobby Humphrey Alabama RB Denver
1990 Rob Moore Syracuse WR N.Y. Jets
1992 Dave Brown Duke QB N.Y. Giants
This year's class
Forget about Carson Palmer, Charles Rogers and Dewayne Robertson. Those guys are taken -- these guys aren't. So in the same spirit we reported over 100 individual school workout results from before the 2003 NFL Draft, here are the six draft prospects NFL scouts are getting information on these days:
SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT PROSPECTS
Player Pos. Gil's comments
Jason Cedeno DT A product of Northeastern Oklahoma State, Cedeno participated in five games and accumulated five tackles. The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder has the size some teams are looking for.
Earl Cochran DE A native of Birmingham, Ala., Cochran played at Alabama State in 2002 where he had 62 tackles, 9? sacks and three fumbles forced. Last year, the 6-4, 224-pound Cochran made the second-team All-SWAC team.
Noah Happe DE Happe (pronounced "happy") is 6-5, 231 pounds and is 22 years old. He played at Oregon State, where he had 45 tackles in 13 games last year along with five sacks, two fumble recoveries and an interception. He also has experience as a deep snapper.
Tony Hollings RB This is the most interesting prospect in this draft. Hollings -- 5-10?, 223 pounds -- is a converted defensive back with 4.47 speed in the 40. He actually led the nation in rushing through four games last year before suffering a torn ACL that put him on the shelf for the rest of the year. He finished with 92 carries, 633 yards and -- get this -- 11 touchdowns.
Donovan Morgan WR Last played for Louisiana-Lafayette in 2001, where he caught 22 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown. Morgan stands at about 6-4 and 200 pounds.
Brad Pyatt WR Pyatt -- 6 feet, 203 pounds -- from Northern Colorado, played two seasons at Kentucky before redshirting this past season with a foot injury. As a true freshman, he had seven starts and caught 21 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
By Gil Brandt
Special to NFL.com
(June 27, 2003) -- On July 10, the NFL will commence the 27th annual Supplemental Draft. It's just like the Annual Player Selection Meeting held every year in New York (also known as the NFL Draft ), but with a few subtle differences ...
Every year, over 200 players are picked in the NFL Draft. There have been a total of 32 players taken overall in the previous 26 supplemental drafts.
Supplemental drafts occur at varying times, but usually in the summer. There was one during the 2002 season, which was unique. There have been multiple drafts in the same year -- they had four of them in 1985.
Instead of over 400 players to choose from, usually there is only a handful. Sometimes, there are none.
Teams can opt to not make a pick if they so desire.
There's no glitz or glamour. There's no commissioner's podium (or commissioner). There's no jersey-holding, no green room, no TV coverage and no media session.
But otherwise, it's the same.
Supplemental drafts got started in 1977 when Al Hunter, a running back from Notre Dame, was declared scholastically ineligible to play college football. Essentially, Hunter had nowhere to play except for the NFL. So instead of waiting until the 1978 NFL Draft, the league chose to have an extra draft just for him.
Since then, numerous players have been available in the supplemental draft for a bevy of reasons. Ultimately, if a player was no longer eligible to play on the college level and missed the deadline for the NFL Draft, he could be picked here.
Noah Happe will leave Oregon State to try to catch on in the NFL as a defensive end or long snapper.
Here's how it worked: The NFL would pull names out of a hat to determine the draft order. They would then go down the list, offering each team the chance to make a selection. A team got the chance every round to make its pick. If a team made a pick, they had to forfeit a pick in the subsequent draft -- the bigger draft with the college players. Sometimes, rounds would go by where nobody made a pick. Sometimes the entire draft would go by without a player being picked.
Nowadays it still works the same way, but instead of pulling names out of a hat, the NFL uses the previous year's draft order. The Bengals will get the first chance to pick someone from this year's pool.
Hunter was picked in the fourth round by the Seattle Seahawks. So if you ever looked at the 1978 draft and wondered why the Seahawks didn't have a pick in the fourth round, now you know why. The Texans forfeited one of their sixth-rounders because they selected OL Milford Brown in last year's supplemental draft.
Granted, Hunter and Brown are two examples, but neither of them evoke Hall of Fame thoughts. Believe it or not, there have been some players picked in the supplemental draft that have gone on to have great NFL careers. Any ardent Philadelphia or Minnesota fans would know receiver Cris Carter was a fourth-round supplemental pick of the Eagles.
Teams haven't shied away from using a first-round pick in these drafts either. In fact, 25 percent of all supplemental selections are first-rounders. Five quarterbacks, one receiver, one running back and one linebacker have made up this group. Check out who's on this list -- you might recognize a few names:
Year Player College Pos. Team
1981 Dave Wilson Illinois QB New Orleans
1985 Bernie Kosar Miami QB Cleveland
1987 Brian Bosworth Oklahoma LB Seattle
1989 Steve Walsh Miami QB Dallas
1989 Timm Rosenbach Wash. State QB Phoenix
1989 Bobby Humphrey Alabama RB Denver
1990 Rob Moore Syracuse WR N.Y. Jets
1992 Dave Brown Duke QB N.Y. Giants
This year's class
Forget about Carson Palmer, Charles Rogers and Dewayne Robertson. Those guys are taken -- these guys aren't. So in the same spirit we reported over 100 individual school workout results from before the 2003 NFL Draft, here are the six draft prospects NFL scouts are getting information on these days:
SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT PROSPECTS
Player Pos. Gil's comments
Jason Cedeno DT A product of Northeastern Oklahoma State, Cedeno participated in five games and accumulated five tackles. The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder has the size some teams are looking for.
Earl Cochran DE A native of Birmingham, Ala., Cochran played at Alabama State in 2002 where he had 62 tackles, 9? sacks and three fumbles forced. Last year, the 6-4, 224-pound Cochran made the second-team All-SWAC team.
Noah Happe DE Happe (pronounced "happy") is 6-5, 231 pounds and is 22 years old. He played at Oregon State, where he had 45 tackles in 13 games last year along with five sacks, two fumble recoveries and an interception. He also has experience as a deep snapper.
Tony Hollings RB This is the most interesting prospect in this draft. Hollings -- 5-10?, 223 pounds -- is a converted defensive back with 4.47 speed in the 40. He actually led the nation in rushing through four games last year before suffering a torn ACL that put him on the shelf for the rest of the year. He finished with 92 carries, 633 yards and -- get this -- 11 touchdowns.
Donovan Morgan WR Last played for Louisiana-Lafayette in 2001, where he caught 22 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown. Morgan stands at about 6-4 and 200 pounds.
Brad Pyatt WR Pyatt -- 6 feet, 203 pounds -- from Northern Colorado, played two seasons at Kentucky before redshirting this past season with a foot injury. As a true freshman, he had seven starts and caught 21 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns.