Five Detroit Lions players were suspended as part of a league-wide gambling probe in 2023, but Lions coach Dan Campbell indicated that incident will not have any bearing on whether the Lions are interested in Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby in next month’s supplemental draft.
“All I can tell you is that we look at everything,” Campbell said before the Lions’ final practice of minicamp Wednesday, June 17. “[General manager] Brad [Holmes] looks at everything and so nothing is off the docket, so our eyes are open. Doesn’t mean we will make a move or we won’t.”
Sorsby applied for the supplemental draft this week despite winning an injunction to play college football in 2026 after he was suspended by the NCAA for betting on college football games.
Among the bets Sorsby has admitted to placing were at least 40 bets on Indiana football when he was a backup quarterback for the Hoosiers in 2022-23, according to ESPN.
Considered one of the top returning draft-eligible quarterbacks, Sorsby starred at Cincinnati last season, where he threw for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns, and transferred to Texas Tech after the year.
He decided to apply for the draft because Texas Tech faced backlash for its decision to fight his NCAA suspension, his agent Ron Slavin said in a radio interview on KRLD-FM (105.3) in Dallas, via Pro Football Talk.
Jared Goff is entrenched as the Lions’ starting quarterback, but the team has had little success developing a young backup in recent years. Veteran Teddy Bridgewater took most of the second-team reps during workouts this spring, while undrafted rookie Luke Altmyer served as the No. 3 quarterback.
The Lions had five players suspended in 2023 for violating the NFL’s gambling policy.
They released three of those players − C.J. Moore, Quintez Cephus and Stanley Berryhill − at or shortly after the time their suspensions were announced. A fourth player, Demetrius Taylor, was no longer with the team when his suspension was handed down.
Jameson Williams, the fifth player, served a four-game suspension (reduced from six games), signed a three-year, $83 million extension last fall and is one of the top deep-threat receivers in the NFL. Unlike Sorsby, Williams was not accused of betting on games involving his team.
The NFL last held a supplemental draft in 2023 and last had a player picked in the supplemental draft in 2019.
If Sorsby is approved for this year’s draft, the NFL will hold a weighted lottery to determine the order of selection, based on last year’s records. The 10 teams that won six or fewer games last season will make up the first 10 picks of the draft, while the Lions and the other non-playoff teams that won more than six games in 2025 will fill spots 11-18. Teams that made the playoffs last year will have the final 14 picks in each round.
During the draft, teams bid for the right to select Sorsby by round. If any team drafts Sorsby, it would forfeit the corresponding choice in next year’s draft (i.e., if Sorsby goes in the third round, the team would lose its third-round pick in 2027).
The Lions have all seven of their original picks in next year’s draft, plus an extra seventh-round pick they acquired in the David Montgomery trade.
They’ve made one supplemental draft choice in franchise history, taking North Carolina A&T defensive back Kevin Robinson in the ninth round of the 1982 supplemental draft.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: For Detroit Lions, ‘nothing off the docket’ with Brendan Sorsby, NFL supplemental draft
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
