NFL Supplemental Draft 2015: Reported Date, Format, Rules, Eligible Prospects

The 2015 NFL supplemental draft officially has a date.   

According to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, this year's supplemental draft will take place Thursday, July 9. 

Player	Position	School
Isaiah Battle	OT	Clemson
Darrius Caldwell	DE	West Georgia
Dalvon Stuckey	DT	West Georgia
Eric Eiland	DE	Houston
Sean McQuillan	TE	UConn
Kevin Short	DB	Kansas
Adrian Wilkins	WR/KR	Adrian Wilkins

Smith indicated Battle "has a very good chance of getting picked" in the supplemental draft. Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network and Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports weighed in on the prospect:

Players are usually eligible for the supplemental draft because they missed the filing deadline for the regular draft or had some kind of issue that affected their college eligibility. 

In terms of how the supplemental draft format works, Smith broke it down in 2012.

The order is determined in a lottery style, broken down into three different tiers. The first drawing features teams that won six or fewer games, which is followed by the next group of teams that won seven or more games but didn't make the playoffs. 

The final tier features all 12 playoff teams. Last year's worst team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have the best odds of getting the No. 1 pick in the supplemental draft, as their name is put in the first-tier drawing 32 times, followed by the Tennessee Titans 31 times and so on down the line. 

Once the order is set, teams are then able to select eligible players or pass on their pick each round if there isn't any player they want to take. If there is a player selected, teams will lose that pick in next year's traditional draft for the round a player was taken. 

For instance, Josh Gordon was the last player taken in the second round of the supplemental draft by the Cleveland Browns in 2012. As a result, the Browns forfeited their selection in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft.

The supplemental draft doesn't often provide results, as no one has been selected in the last two years, but there have been some interesting players taken in the past. Gordon has certainly had problems off of the field for Cleveland, but he was an All-Pro wide receiver in 2013. 

Teams are always seeking to find cost-effective talent, so if one of them falls in love with the potential of the four eligible players this year, the two-year drought of no players being taken in the supplemental draft will come to an end.