What’s next for Brendan Sorsby? The last NFL Supplemental Draft pick explains
On Monday afternoon, it was announced that Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby would be dropping his lawsuit against the NCAA in his fight for eligibility in 2026 and will be entering the NFL Supplemental Draft.
The decision comes after a months-long fight in the Texas courts system to retain his right to play for the Red Raiders after it was discovered that he bet on his own team’s games while he was a freshman at Indiana. Although he never bet in a game he played in, the decision to do so cost him his eligibility with the NCAA. However, after a back-and-forth in multiple courts, he was granted a temporary injunction to play while the court awaited a full trial next February. Obviously, that would have been well after his senior season in Lubbock would have ended.
Instead of seeing that through, Sorsby put the controversy of him playing in 2026 to bed by parting ways with Texas Tech and entering the supplemental draft.
What is the NFL Supplemental Draft? How does it work?
A very rare tool — especially in today’s college football and NFL landscape — the NFL Supplemental Draft is used when a player submits his NFL paperwork after the standard draft but before the season. It is most commonly used for players that lose their eligibility in that window for various reasons.
The last player to be selected in a supplemental draft was Washington State defensive back Jalen Thompson, who was given a fifth-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2019. In the league’s history, 46 players have been selected in the supplemental draft, and Sorsby is expected to be the 47th.
In the supplemental draft, teams can submit a “bid” for a player with a draft pick of a specific round attached. For example, if the Cowboys submit a second-round bid on Sorsby in the supplemental draft and no other team bids a pick higher than a third-round pick, then he heads to Dallas and the Cowboys then forfeit their second-round pick in 2027.
Where it can get confusing is when multiple teams bid the same round pick. Prior to the draft, teams are broken up into three tiers: teams that won six or fewer games the prior season, the remaining teams that did not make the playoffs and teams that made the postseason. From there, a weighted lottery system is used to determine the exact order with the lottery favoring teams with worse records from the prior year. The exact order for the 2026 version has not yet been determined.
Advice to Sorsby from a former supplemental draft pick
During the 2019 offseason, Thompson was preparing for his senior season at Washington State after a standout junior campaign for the Cougars. Thought of as a potential day-two pick in the following year’s draft, Thompson was hoping to elevate his stock before entering the NFL.
However, Thompson was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after a rule violation stemming from a purchase of an over-the-counter supplement from a local nutrition store. While it was not a steroid, it was considered banned and forced Thompson out of college and into the supplemental draft.
Throughout the process, Thompson — now a memeber of the Dallas Cowboys after signing with the team in free agency this offseason — remained diligent in the journey and trusted that it would end up right for him in the end. When asked about advice he’d give to Sorsby, he echoed similar thoughts.
“The advice I’d give to him is to just keep going,” Thompson said. “Understand that God has a plan, and the plan is always right. When I was going through that whole situation, I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, what the plan was going to be.”
Thompson knew he would be selected, but he had no idea where he would end up and what round it would fall in. While scrolling social media with his parents on the day of the supplemental draft, he found out he was selected by Arizona.
“We were just looking to see where I got drafted,” he said. “There was no big party. My brothers had to go to work that day. It was just like a normal day. Found out that I was going to the Cardinals, so it was a big day for us.”
From there, it was a quick transition for Thompson who immediately jumped into a training camp without a full NFL offseason under his belt that the usual draft pick gets.
“I had to get with some of the vets and make sure I knew the plays,” he said. “Make sure I knew what to do and how to be a pro. Once I got that down, it took maybe a month, if that. I was rocking and rolling after that.”
With Sorsby being a quarterback and so much more knowledge needed to fully grasp what’s being run and taught in a training camp environment, it will be even more important for him to attack his early days in the NFL with the right approach.
“I didn’t get the whole OTA process,” Thompson said. “I had to go right into training camp and get it done. A guy like him, a quarterback, I’m sure he’s intentional with his work. Smart guy, I think he’ll do great.”
What’s next for Brendan Sorsby?
Since Sorsby and Texas Tech have parted ways, it appears as though he will be training independently to prepare for the draft. On July 10, he will have an individual Pro Day at Southlake Carroll High School where all 32 teams are expected to attend, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
While a date for the NFL Supplemental Draft has not yet been set, it must take place on or before July 16 so that there are seven required days that pass before the first training camp begins in the NFL.
