2012 Supplemental Draft: Incremental Lottery System Sets Order

In case you didn't know - because I didn't know either - the NFL actually uses a lottery system for the Supplemental Draft to determine order. ProFootballTalk explained this morning:

"Like the NBA and NHL, the NFL supplemental draft lottery is weighted so that worse teams get a better chance of having the highest picks. The first drawing will feature the 10 teams that won six or fewer games last season: Colts, Rams, Vikings, Browns, Buccaneers, Redskins, Jaguars, Dolphins, Panthers and Bills. The Colts will get their names put in the drawing 32 times, the Rams 31 times, and so on. Those 10 teams are guaranteed to have Top 10 picks, but the lottery will determine the exact order. After that, a second drawing takes place with the 10 teams that won seven or more games last season but didn't make the playoffs: Chiefs, Seahawks, Cardinals, Cowboys, Eagles, Jets, Raiders, Chargers, Bears, Titans. The Chiefs will get their names in the drawing 22 times, the Seahawks 21 times, and so on. Those 10 teams get picks 11-20. Finally, the third drawing is for the 12 playoff teams, with the Super Bowl champion Giants getting their names in the drawing just once. The 12 playoff teams get draft lottery picks 21-32."

Unfortunately for the Seahawks, the highest they could climb in the order due to the lottery system is one spot, to number eleven (they were slated to pick 12th per record and strength of schedule in the regular Draft). More likely, if you're a cynical Seattle Sports Fan like me, the Hawks will slide down to number twenty and totally miss out on a chance to select the next Terrell Owens (Josh Gordon). Just kidding. Kinda.

Either way, as PFT points out, it's puzzling that the attention-whoring NFL is not televising this event tomorrow, so we'll have to watch intently on the twitters to find out what's happening in each round. It works in a similar fashion to the normal NFL Draft - going round to round, but in a silent auction type of manner. The team that places a bid on a player, in a certain round, will give up the corresponding pick in next year's draft.