Chiefs, Rest of NFL Won’t Have Supplemental Draft

The NFL doesn’t have an NBA-type lottery system to determine its draft order, but the NFL does have an obscure lever it can pull every summer when necessary. It’s not necessary this year.

For the seventh straight year, the NFL informed its clubs that the summer supplemental draft won’t take place, according to draft expert Dane Brugler from The Athletic. Arizona was the last team to draft a player supplementally, safety Jalen Thompson in 2019, the year Kansas City won its first Super Bowl title in 50 years.

And speaking of the Chiefs, in the long history of the supplemental draft, Kansas City has drafted one player in that phase. The team took defensive end Darren Mickell out of Florida in 1992.

In order to draft a player in the summer supplemental phase, the team gives up a selection in the traditional draft the following spring. Players eligible for the supplemental draft apply for that designation due to circumstances that prevented them from fully participating in the full pre-draft process.

In Mickell’s case, second-year Florida head coach Steve Spurrier suspended the pass rusher for his entire 1991 senior season for undisclosed violations of team rules. But Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson and head coach Marty Schottenheimer thought Mickell could help a defensive front that already featured Neil Smith, Derrick Thomas and Dan Saleaumua.

With any supplemental draft, eligible players like Mickell sit on a proverbial conveyor belt as each team declares whether it wants the player. After all NFL clubs pass on a player after one round, the process repeats for a second round, third round, etc. When a team’s turn surfaces and that club declares it will draft the player, the round in which that happens signifies the selection the team gives up in the following traditional draft.

Because Kansas City drafted Mickell in the second round of the 1992 supplemental draft, the Chiefs were skipped in the second round of the 1993 NFL draft. Their first selection in 1993 was in the third round, when they chose future Hall of Fame guard Will Shields at No. 74 overall. Days before the draft, Kansas City acquired quarterback Joe Montana from San Francisco in a trade that included the Chiefs’ first-round selection in 1993.

Mickell wound up playing nine years in the NFL, the first four (1992-95) with the Chiefs. Before leaving for New Orleans as an unrestricted free agent in 1996, Mickell posted 13½ sacks in 45 games for Kansas City. He also helped the Chiefs to the AFC playoffs each year in Kansas City.

NFL players have entered the league via the supplemental draft since 1977. Notable supplemental selections include quarterback Bernie Kosar (1985), linebacker Brian Bosworth (1987), wide receiver Cris Carter (1987), quarterback Steve Walsh (1989), running back Bobby Humphrey (1989), quarterback Terrelle Pryor and wide receiver Josh Gordon (2012).

The No. 1 source for Chiefs information is OnSI. The best way to remain up to date is to follow @KCChiefsOnSI and @Domminchella on X (Twitter).

And, don’t forget to like the Facebook page here and chat with Kansas City fans from all over the globe.