The Buffalo Bills won’t have an opportunity to select players in the NFL’s supplemental draft in 2020.
The supplemental draft “allows teams to bid on players who, for various reasons, had their college eligibility affected and did not enter the regular spring draft,” according to NFL.com. Teams bid future draft picks on players and they go to the highest bidder.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero first reported the cancellation of the draft. Per the report, players eligible for the 2020 draft will still be able to enter the 2021 NFL Draft. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the supplemental draft isn’t an automatic occurrence each year. The league can elect to hold it or cancel it.
Some believed the NFL would see an influx of players applying to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NFL quickly squashed the idea that they’d allow more entrants than usual. Now it seems their decision to forego the supplemental draft will absolve the league of any controversy surrounding who would be permitted to enter the draft.
In terms of the Bills and the supplemental draft, there’s been a few additions made that way, but it’s been a long time. The last time the Bills elected to do so was for defensive back Brett Young in 1989 and the other was via running back Rod Stewart in 1979.
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