With the Chicago Bears having drafted Alshon Jeffery in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft, it's highly unlikely that they'll be active in the 2012 NFL Supplemental Draft, which may only feature one selection. That prospect is Baylor Bears wide receiver Josh Gordon, who was teammates last season with first round picks Robert Griffin III and Kendall Wright.
The order of the supplemental draft is determined in the following manner, which is essentially a lottery. All the teams in the NFL are put into three groups: teams that won six or fewer games, teams that won more than six games but missed the playoffs and teams that made the playoffs. Within those three tiers, the teams are ordered through a lottery, with teams with fewer wins having a better opportunity of landing a higher pick.
From there, teams submit electronic bids on the group of available players. A team that submits the highest bit on a player is awarded the player, with ties being broken first by the tier system and then by the order selected via lottery if two teams in the same tier submit identical bids on a player. A team that is awarded a player will lose the corresponding pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.
The groupings for this year's lottery, in increasing number of wins, are as follows:
Draft date: Thursday, January 11
Draft time: 12 p.m. CT
Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on the Chicago Bears, be sure to visit Windy City Gridiron. And drop by SB Nation's NFL news hub for more updates and commentary from around the league.
