NFL says there will be no 2026 Supplemental Draft, clouding Brendan Sorsby’s path to the Jets

The NFL informed representatives of Jets target Brendan Sorsby that there will be no 2026 Supplemental Draft, according to Yahoo Sports. The determination matters because a supplemental selection is one of the few remaining ways for a player whose eligibility status changes outside the normal draft window to be added to an NFL roster immediately.

Under NFL rules, the league holds the right to determine each year whether a supplemental draft will be conducted. In this case, the league is not scheduling one for 2026, extending a recent trend: Yahoo Sports reported that there has not been a Supplemental Draft since 2023, and no player selections have occurred since 2019. The practical effect is that the “deadline” for teams and players looking at the supplemental mechanism is now effectively removed for the coming offseason cycle.

Sorsby, who has been associated with the Jets as a potential fit, became part of a broader offseason discussion about alternative entry points into the league. When supplemental drafts are held, teams can use them to secure players who become available under certain circumstances after the regular draft has already passed. Without a supplemental event, that avenue closes, at least until the NFL decides again to stage one in a future year.

The absence of a 2026 Supplemental Draft also shifts the roster-building math for teams monitoring players who might otherwise wait for that option. Supplemental selections are often viewed as situational tools, not routine roster decisions, and when the league does not stage the event, teams must adjust their planning to the next available offseason mechanisms, such as the regular draft cycle or other forms of roster addition during the league year.

For Sorsby and the Jets, the timing is the key issue. The decision is not about a particular on-field evaluation being discounted, but about the NFL’s operational decision for 2026. If the supplemental pathway was being treated as the most direct possible route in that timeline, the league’s announcement changes what the next steps can realistically look like, and it also reduces the urgency created by a specific supplemental window.

There is, however, a caveat: the NFL could still reverse course in another year if it elects to hold a supplemental draft then. Yahoo Sports’ reporting emphasizes that the league decides annually whether such a draft exists, so the door is not permanently shut across all seasons, only for the 2026 offseason specifically.

What to watch next is how both sides respond to the lack of a supplemental option. The NFL’s decision sets the baseline, but future movement will likely depend on how eligibility and roster availability line up relative to the next standard entry points into the league. Until then, Sorsby’s situation is likely to remain defined less by supplemental-draft timing and more by what comes next in the offseason calendar.