Receiver Available in Supplemental Draft
The Bears will be among the teams with the first crack at a wide receiver who possesses many of the qualities they covet in the position when the supplemental NFL draft is held July 11.
Purdue wide receiver Milton Wright is eligible for a supplemental draft as one will be held for the first time since 2019.
Wright had an impressive career on the field with the Boilermakers with 18 catches for 288 yards and a TD as a freshman, 24 receptions for 305 yards and two TDs as a sophomore and 57 receptions for 732 yards with seven TDs as a junior in 2021.
However, Wright was academically ineligible and skipped spring football in 2022 in an attempt to become eligible. He had also missed the Music City Bowl against Tennessee in December of 2021 because of academic issues. Wright failed to become eligible again in 2022. So in a year when Wright was expected to ascend to replace Cleveland Browns receiver David Bell as the Boilermakers' No. 1 pick, he couldn't play.
The supplemental draft is for players who weren't eligible for the regular draft for several reasons and Wright fits into this category.
The selection process isn't like the regular draft although records are involved. The Bears don't necessarily have first crack at Wright.
Teams are classified into three groups for a weighted lottery based on their win totals in the previous season. The first group is non-playoff teams with six wins or fewer. The second group is non-playoff teams with six wins or more. The last group is playoff teams.
The lottery is weighted according to record the previous season, so the Bears would have a better chance than other teams to choose based on the worst record of 3-14. Houston was 3-13-1. However, it is a lottery.
Teams do not have to pick the player. So if the Bears come up in Round 1 as the team with the choice, they can opt to move on without making a pick and then the next team decides whether to use the pick.
Wright would most likely not be a first-round pick, so it would move on to the next round. A team selecting him would then forfeit a pick in the corresponding round for the 2024 draft.
If the Bears decided in Round 4 they wanted Wright in the supplemental draft, they would lose a fourth-round pick in 2024.
The bids for Wright or any other players who might be eligible are submitted by teams blindly with the round the want to take a given player, so it's not a case where someone is sitting around waiting on a team to decide like in the regular draft.
Wright fits the Bears profile for an outside receiver in that he is 6-foot-3 but he's not necessarily a burner. NFL Draft Scout projected him at 4.52 for the 40.
The only Bears supplemental draft pick made was BYU running back Harvey Unga, who never appeared in a regular-season NFL game. The Bears took him as a seventh-rounder in the supplemental draft. He is now the running backs coach at BYU.
Some of the more notable supplemental picks made over the years since the inception of the supplemental draft in 1977 were linebacker Brian Bosworth, wide receiver Cris Carter, quarterback Bernie Kosar, running back Bobby Humphrey, wide receiver Josh Gordon and quarterback Steve Walsh. The Cowboys took Walsh but he later led the Bears to the playoffs and a first-round win over Minnesota in 1994.
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