Despite some talk that large numbers of college football players could enter this summer’s supplemental draft rather than wait to see if college football will be played at all, the NFL has no plans to let that happen.
The league has made it known in college football circles that it plans no significant changes to the supplemental draft to account for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo.
That’s no surprise. As Florio noted on Sunday, the NFL isn’t eager to undermine college football, which provides the league with a free player development system that has been very successful and very lucrative for decades. An influx of players bolting from college football to the NFL this summer might benefit those players, but it doesn’t benefit either the NFL or the NCAA, and the NFL and NCAA aren’t going to make it easy for those players.
So the supplemental draft will go on as usual, with only a handful of players eligible.