Brendan Sorsby, if allowed entrance to the NFL via the supplemental draft next month, will offer a unique litmus test on how much talent, especially at critical positions, can trump all else. A quarterback who has essentially been banished from college football for a rampant gambling addiction (he habitually bet on games involving his own team), but one whom multiple front office execs told me carries a second-round draft grade, could be weeks from being made available to potentially all 32 teams.
If you pay much attention to this league, you already know how this is going to transpire.
The opportunity to land quality and value at QB will lead teams to welcome back players from federal incarnation or bestow them with record-setting contract, despite widespread and credible accusations of sexual assault and misconduct. So while there will be ruminations about character and decision-making, our weeks of conversations with scouts and general managers about Sorsby’s talent last month (when he was still ensnared in lawsuits to try to return to Texas Tech) have led us to a firm conclusion about what will occur if the league grants him entry to the supplemental draft: Sorsby will get selected no later than the third round.
Multiple teams will put in what amount to “bids” for him, and it would not be shocking in the least to see him grabbed by a successful team that doesn’t have an immediate need for a starting QB but will soon enough (like the Eagles).
How the supplemental draft works
Teams are clustered in tiers based on their performance last year. Unlike the regular draft, this is a blind-bid process. To secure Sorsby’s services now, teams submit blind bids by round, and whichever team places the highest bid wins the player and forfeits that same pick in the 2027 draft. I’d set the over/under at 3.5 teams making a claim. Perhaps I’m being too conservative.
Multiple NFL executives see Sorsby as a second-round talent
“This kid has a chance to be a first-round pick (in 2027) if he keeps improving on his decision-making,” one NFL general manager told me when Texas Tech filed a lawsuit to win back his eligibility. “This is a real quarterback prospect, not some late-round guy. Could he do something like what [first-overall pick Fernando] Mendoza did, with his individual growth? Not winning a national championship and being the top pick, but moving up draft boards? You could talk yourself into that.”
Another GM said: “Somebody is getting him in the second round. You have to get your owner on board. He’s going to have to be really comfortable with it. It’s a big deal, but he could have gone in the second round this year if he was eligible.”
I pushed the second GM and asked if he would select Sorsby that high, and he said it would require more deliberations with ownership about the matter, and weeks to sort through. “I don’t know if they’d let me get in,” the GM said. But he didn’t rule it out, and it sounded like that discovery process would unfold.
The gambling addiction is where NFL teams are divided
One longtime NFL executive who has previously been a general manager and drafted quarterbacks in the first three rounds said: “It’s a non-starter for me, betting on football and betting on your games. But I’m old school. I remember Art Schlichter [fourth-overall pick in 1982 by the Baltimore Colts, whose career was derailed by gambling addiction]. Most of these guys now [current GMs] don’t, and the [gambling] laws have changed so much.”
The first GM said that while Sorsby’s character and decision-making require a deep probe given the severity of his problems, his internal reports didn’t indicate that scouts thought Sorsby was a lost cause or had other issues. "I don’t think he’s a bad kid,” he said. “It’s not that he can’t be a leader or anything like that. But he has a serious problem.”
Another long-time personnel executive assessed the situation this way: “I wouldn’t do it [draft him], but he’s going to go. He’s athletic enough. He can push the ball downfield. He’s an NFL back-up right now with real starting potential.”
Why quarterback desperation could outweigh everything else
The Eagles came up repeatedly when I asked sources for a potential match. This is a team with a history of drafting QBs even when it’s not a pressing need (think Kevin Kolb when they had Donovan McNabb taking them to the NFC Championship Game every year).
The Eagles also welcomed Michael Vick back to the league — again with a crowded QB room — when he was released from incarceration for crimes involving dog fighting. Head coach Andy Reid is gone from that time, but general manager Howie Roseman remains, with Jalen Hurts in the final year of guaranteed money on his deal and no extension expected.
Tampa Bay, engaged in a contract impasse for now with Baker Mayfield, might mull it. Some thought Texans GM Nick Caserio, with CJ Stroud spiraling and given the exec’s background with the win-at-all-cost Patriots, could be smitten.
Ultimately, it will only take one team in any round to make Sorsby’s NFL dreams a reality if granted entry to the process. Many more will make an attempt.
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