Brendan Sorsby's path to the NFL might be taking an unexpected turn. The Cincinnati Bearcats quarterback, whose NCAA eligibility is now clouded by alleged gambling issues, could find himself entering the NFL's supplemental draft after reportedly entering a residential treatment program.

Sorsby, who spent his first two seasons at Indiana before transferring to Cincinnati for the past two years, has been generating buzz as a potential first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. But with questions swirling about whether he'll be able to play college football in 2026, the supplemental draft is emerging as a viable alternative.

For those unfamiliar, the supplemental draft has been around since 1977, designed specifically for draft-eligible players who missed the regular NFL draft deadline. It's typically used by players facing college eligibility issues—exactly the situation Sorsby now finds himself in. The league only holds a supplemental draft when eligible players are available, and it's been a rare event in recent years. The most recent one in 2023 saw no players selected, and you have to go back to 2019 to find the last player picked: safety Jalen Thompson, who went to the Arizona Cardinals.

Here's how it would work for Sorsby: Any team that selects him in the supplemental draft would forfeit a corresponding draft pick in 2027. The draft order is determined by a lottery system based on the previous season's win-loss records, and teams bid on players by indicating which round they'd be willing to use. If multiple teams bid in the same round, the team with the higher draft order gets the player.

Timing-wise, if eligible players are available, the supplemental draft would take place on or before the seventh day before the first training camp opens—typically early to mid-July. That gives Sorsby and interested teams a tight window to make decisions.

The last quarterback selected in an NFL supplemental draft was Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor, who went to the Raiders in the third round back in 2011. While Pryor's NFL journey had its ups and downs, it shows that the supplemental draft can be a legitimate pathway to the pros when the regular draft isn't an option.

For now, Sorsby's immediate future remains uncertain, but the supplemental draft offers a potential lifeline to keep his NFL dreams alive. Whether teams will be willing to part with a draft pick for the talented quarterback remains to be seen—but in the world of football, opportunity often comes from unexpected places.