NFL Supplemental Draft 2016: Will the Browns Make a Selection?

The 2016 NFL Supplemental Draft takes place on Thursday, July 14th at 1:00 PM ET. In total, there are six eligible players:

• RB Jalen Overstreet (Sam Houston State)
• WR Rashaun Simonise (Calgary, Canada)
• DT Ra'Zahn Howard (Purdue)
• DE Cameron Walton (Concordia)
• CB Tee Shepard (Mississippi)
• LS Eddie D'Antuono (Virgina Tech)

If you're looking for brief scouting reports on each of the player, check out Dan Kadar’s preview over at SB Nation. Also, Justin Higdon compiled a preview at one of our SB Nation affiliates. Some of you may know of Higdon’s independent work writing about the Browns before. Rob Rang of CBS Sports also offers a scouting report on each of the players.

From a position perspective, the Browns might have the most immediate need in a defensive lineman, given the season-ending pectoral injury to DE Desmond Bryant. But Bryant just suffered the injury, so it would seem unlikely for the club to spend a draft pick on a player they might not have been scouting too much up until the injury.

Rang notes that Simonise and Howard have generated the most buzz, but that overall, there isn’t a player who is expected to be drafted. Nine teams attended Howard’s Pro Day last week, but the Browns were not one of them. They weren’t reported as having been at Simonise’s Pro Day either.

Here is how the supplemental draft process works:

The order of draft priority for the supplemental draft is essentially determined by record, but there is something of an auction system at play behind the scenes on top of that. All 32 teams are placed into three tiers, the first of which includes teams with six or fewer wins. The team with the worst record gets the best chance at earning top priority within that group.

The second tier consists of the rest of the non-playoff teams and uses the same weighted system. Finally, the last group consists of 12 playoff teams from the 2015-16 season, and also follows the same weighted system as the other two tiers.

Teams simply submit a list of players they are interested in drafting, and which round of the draft they'd like to select that player in. The team with the highest "bid" is eventually awarded the player, and has to forfeit the corresponding pick for that round in the following year's NFL Draft. If two teams go after the same player in the same round, the tier and weighting system described above comes into play.

Players who are not selected will become free agents. What do you think, Browns fans? Are there any prospects you are interested in Cleveland making a run for?