The Houston Texans Don't Need to Think About the Supplemental Draft
No need for Brendan Sorsby in Houston
The Houston Texans might need a quarterback of the future if C.J. Stroud doesn’t work out, but Brendan Sorsby shouldn’t be an option.
Sorsby is the former Indiana and Cincinnati quarterback who transferred to Texas Tech earlier this year. He lost his eligibility when it was revealed that he had gambled on college football games while at Indiana. Sorsby won a legal battle earlier this month to regain his eligibility, but a lack of faith in the ruling’s potential longevity has led him to head for the NFL via the supplemental draft.
The supplemental draft gives players who missed the regular draft’s filing deadline a path into the NFL. Teams bid one of their own draft picks in next year’s NFL Draft. The team with the highest bid is awarded the player.
Don’t let the supplemental draft interrupt summer break. Skip Sorsby.
Using a draft pick to add Sorsby would do nothing to help the Texans in 2026. He isn’t playing over Stroud or Davis Mills. The draft pick used on Sorsby would be better used in a mid-season trade to improve this year’s team.
Beyond this season, the quarterback spot could be unsettled, but better options than Sorsby exist. Stroud playing well enough to remain the quarterback of the future is the best outcome for the Texans. If it isn’t Stroud, drafting a quarterback from what should be a historically deep 2027 class would be more prudent than adding Sorsby.
Adding Sorsby is betting purely on potential. There are tools there. He has good mobility and played tough. His accuracy slipped, but he made a few big plays. Sorsby played well for Cincinnati in 2025, but he wasn’t amazing. He wasn’t going to be a top pick if he had come out in this year’s draft. He would have needed an excellent final college season to be a major factor at quarterback in 2027.
Sorsby would be buried on a depth chart with almost no chance to play in 2026 for the Texans. That is, if he isn’t suspended.
The NFL has carried over punishments in college. Terrelle Pryor, a 2011 supplemental draft pick by the Oakland Raiders, missed five games in a carryover from a college suspension. Sorsby had agreed to a two-game suspension before he opted for the NFL. The league also needs to determine if Sorsby gambled on NFL games, and if there is an avenue for punishment for those potential actions.
It’s a mess and a wait to get him on the field. Let’s pretend he started in the fall of 2027. It would have been almost two years since he played in a game. That’s without adding in any of the pressures of being a quarterback who previously gambled on football. Every mistake comes with a second guess of intent. Were any of those interceptions on purpose? Did he mean to miss that receiver? Nobody knows how Sorsby will hold up under the microscope.
It’s not a gamble worth taking for the Texans.
The Cleveland Browns and New York Jets are the teams many view as the favorites to land Sorsby. I believe the Indianapolis Colts should add Sorsby as an option when their Daniel Jones experiment fails.
Supplemental Draft History for Texans
The Houston Texans have made two selections in the supplemental draft in franchise history.
They selected guard Milford Brown in the sixth round of the 2002 supplemental draft. He played 18 games in three seasons with the Texans. Brown started most of the 2005 season. Quarterback David Carr was sacked a league-high 68 times that year. That’s the third-most all-time in a season.
In 2003, the Texans selected running back Tony Hollings in the second round of the supplemental draft. Hollings rushed for 149 yards and no touchdowns in his three-year career with the Texans. He had rushed for 633 yards in four games his final season at Georgia Tech, but was academically ineligible, which led him to the NFL.
The pick used to select Hollings in the supplemental draft meant the Texans eventually forfeited the top pick in the second round of the 2004 draft.