Supplemental Draft process

[Commissioner]

Before the COVID-19 crisis I really never considered adding any sort of Supplmental Draft idea to the league, but it has since become an interesting topic of discussion with the idea that players who missed the 2020 NFL Draft and fear there may not be a 2020-2021 College Football season may make themselves eligible for the Supplemental Draft. Over the years, we've occasionally seen a decent player or two enter the Supplemental Draft in July for various reasons (Josh Gordon, Terelle Pryor, Jalen Thompson are recent examples). It is rare, but it may be good to have a system worked into our CBA in case it is ever needed and as mentioned we could have several players opt for it this season with coronavirus virus fears. Most of the time we will probably never have a Supplemental Daft, but for the years where it becomes relevant it would be good to have something in place so we know how to handle those players. If you are unfamiliar with the Supplemental Process it is described below.


Article: 2020 NFL Draft: COVID-19 to increase Supplemental Draft entries?

https://withthefirstpick.com/2020/03/31 ... t-entries/


Article: What is the NFL Supplemental Draft?

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/280 ... ntal-draft



Option 1: We implement a suitable Supplemental Draft for our league.

Following the NFL structure...

"The league’s 32 teams are divided into three groups based on their performance during the previous season. Teams that won six or fewer games form one group, non-playoff teams that won more than six games form a second group, and playoff teams form a third group. We would do this for each conference. A lottery determines the draft order within each group and teams with worse records have a greater chance of drawing a higher pick. For example, the team with the worst record last season, Carolina, has the best chance to win the first pick in the supplemental draft and is guaranteed to pick no lower than 13th, as there were 13 teams with six or fewer wins last season."

--> We would have to adjust the number of wins since our amount of games and weeks are different. The easy way is to say teams at or below .375 win % (that is 6 wins out of 16 games) fall into Group 1. Non-playoff teams over .375 Win % fall into Group 2 and then playoff teams into Group 3.

As for the lottery system within each group we could simply give out balls to match the number of teams in each group while giving the best odds to the worst teams. For instance, say we have 5 teams in Group 1. The team with the worst record gets 5 balls, the next worst gets 4, then the next 3, next 2, and the team that has the best record in that group gets 1. That will determine the lottery system and odds within each group.

Or if we vote to implement a lottery system for our draft order and we just want to use that same draft order for our Supplemental Draft we can do that as well. That is probably the easier option.

The way the NFL continues...

"Unlike the regular draft, during which teams announce their picks, teams submit blind bids to the NFL commissioner indicating what players they are interested in drafting in the supplemental draft. In addition, a team must indicate what round in the draft it would like to select a given player. The team that submits the highest bid is awarded the rights to the player and forfeits its pick in that round in the following season’s regular draft. If two teams submit a bid for the same player in the same round, the team with the higher pick in that round, as determined by the semi-lottery system described above, is awarded the player."

--> Now the NFL has a blind bidding system that I would like to skip because it's hard to implement a fair blind system outside when it's a manual process like this would be. So I say players who are eligible for the Supplemental Draft are submitted and then we post them one at a time and start with Round 1.

For instance, say Player A is in the Supplemental Draft. We say ok is anyone interested in drafting Player A in Round 1 of the Supplemental Draft. If we have no one we move to Round 2 and so one. If we have multiple managers who say yes in any given Round then we look at their draft spot that was determined by your Group and Lottery and that is the tie breaker.

Important to note: Players drafted in the Supplemental Draft follow the same rookie pay scale as our NFL Rookie Draft. Picks 1-2 ($6), Picks 3-5 ($5), Picks 6-8($4), Picks 9-12 ($3) Picks 13-16 ($2) ...players taken Rounds 2 thru 4 have $1 salaries.

Also, please notice that is you take a player in a given round that means you LOSE that draft pick in the next NFL Draft which also means if you already traded that pick away and dont have it then you cannot select a player in the Supplemental Draft in that Round. So if you draft a player in Round 2 of the 2020 Supplemental Draft you will lose your 2021 Round 2 Pick for the NFL Rookie Draft.

Now you might be thinking what's the point of this...most of the time we will never use it. Well take this season for instance. If a few big college stars opt to enter into the Supplemental Draft because they fear there will be no college football season and those players would project to be a 1st round player in the next NFL Draft then you're essentially giving up your 1st round pick a year early in order to grab them now. So it's just a protection in case a big name or two is eligible and enters the NFL Supplemental Draft.



Option 2 - If we dont want to offer any sort of protection for this scenario in that we dont want to implement any sort of Supplemental Draft process and we say players taken in the NFL Supplemental Draft are available as Free Agents to sign in our offseason Free Agency Signing period and they essentially go to the highest bidder. Also, there is no loss of draft capital for signing these players like there would be in Option 1.



Option 1 gives better odds to teams in the bottom of the standings while using future draft picks as leverage.

Option 2 gives better odds to teams with the most budget room and has no repercussions on future draft picks.

This would start for the current 2020 Season.

Discuss below.

[bthoman]

Option 1 is a lot to do about nothing. This almost never happens.

Throw them into free agency and let the fiscally responsible teams sign them.

[lukebroncos]

This is really only important this year to be honest. Conference commissioners nationwide said there will not be college football until there are students on campus. While I can see this happening in some states I can't see this happening in others. Just like in the NFL owners should not need to predict such a ridiculous outlier, I would argue not having the cap when several significant surprise additions to the free-agent market show up out of nowhere does not make you irresponsible. It makes you unlucky. This could be some potential league shifting talent entering the equation of free agency almost unannounced. The NFL has a process in place for a reason, so should we.

[bthoman]

What if I own someone else's 2021 pick? I goes by the owner of the 2021 pick correct?

What if I already traded someone else's 2021 1stbthis offseason (NYJ) because this rule didn't exist, and that team wins the lottery for the 1st pick? Is that fair?

In my opinion, free agent bidding is the most fair. Everyone would have the opportunity to drop or trade players before the bidding took place right? It stands to reason that the less competitive teams would usually have the most cap space, so free agent bidding would cover that angle as well.

Also, I think everyone would have a fair shot at him. Who is going to bid $100 on a rookie that also carries a 50% cap penalty if you don't commit to him for at least two years.

[lukebroncos]

Well you are effectiveely adding these players to the 2021 draft pool so if you traded your picks you will have less opportunity to draft 2021 players. I think everyone understands that when valuing 2021 picks.

[lukebroncos]

For example, why should Cheifs (champion) have equal rights to jamar chase, who is a ceedee lamb level prospect? Let's say chefs wins the super bowl, acquires chase, and holds their 2021 1st rounder. Does that seem right? Should bad team's have better odds at acquiring this type of talent?

[bthoman]

Chiefs would most likely not win Chase. He doesn't have the cap space because he is a good team. If he wanted to start whacking pieces from his championship team to clear space for Chase, then he should be allowed to do that. Chances are he is no longer going to be a championship caliber team.

I don't understand how this would negatively impact bad teams. Bad teams are usually the teams with the cap space.

[lukebroncos]

Cheifs was an example bc he won . you can replace his name with any other contender. Let's say steelers for example. Oh wait, that's you.

[jamesosteen]

Also we could skip the NFL part where they basically assign a new draft order with the "three groups based on their performance during the previous season" structure. To keep things simple we could just use the same draft order that our lottery determines.

While I do agree with the idea that it would be nice to have this process on the books just in case it is needed I do see two arguments at a head here.

1) Denver saying this would mainly need to be for this offseason with the worry that some college players may elect to join the supplemental draft in fear that the college football season will be lost.

2) What Ben (Steelers) mentioned is a very valid point. Some teams have already traded their 2021 draft picks away so if we implemented this system now some teams would immediately be at a disadvantage in that they may not have the draft capital to advance bids for these players.

That is definitely something to consider and think on...

[detroitlions]

last year the suplemental draft took place in july 10th.. since we are drafting afterwards why cant we just add supplemental draft players to our regular rookie draft?

[Commissioner]

Our rookie draft will more than likely be before July 10.

[mattbills]

This feels like a lot to do from an owners standpoint and I'm not sure about the level of strategy that it introduces.

I also don't feel like we should add anything special just because of the current climate that we are in. My vote is to let those players enter free agency and if a team wants to spend a bunch of free agent money on the unknown prospect let them. They can pay for that player for the next two years and "hope" that they made the correct decision.

I also can't think of a whole lot of players IRL coming from the supplemental draft in the NFL and being great. I mean Gordon, Pryror and Chris Carter were good. But Pryor and Gordon were good for a short time.

So i say they enter free agency and most likely these players won't move the needle on a fantasy team.

[rboyer34]

I think its s good idea. Could do a Lottery to determine picks. Use last years standings as the odds. Do a lottery for every round or snake it. I think everyone should be eligible and it shouldn't have impact on future picks.

[reeddominick]

I see both sides to this topic and there's a good list of pros and cons for each one. I would lean more towards having them enter free agency than doing a supplemental draft

[reeddominick]

Plus I like the added strategy that it could bring for rebuilding teams. Do I bid on this player, or do I take on a bad contract from another team and pick up a draft pick in the process so they can bid on the player in free agency?

[rafastw]

This is a tough one. I actually don't know. But we do have to decide ASAP how this is going to work if it comes to it.