<P> The NFL operates several other drafts in addition to the NFL draft . The league holds a supplemental draft annually . Clubs submit emails to the league stating the player they wish to select and the round they will do so, and the team with the highest bid wins the rights to that player . The exact order is determined by a lottery held before the draft, and a successful bid for a player will result in the team forfeiting the rights to its pick in the equivalent round of the next NFL draft . Players are only eligible for the supplemental draft after being granted a petition for special eligibility . The league holds expansion drafts, the most recent happening in 2002 when the Houston Texans began play as an expansion team . Other drafts held by the league include an allocation draft in 1950 to allocate players from several teams that played in the dissolved All - America Football Conference and a supplemental draft in 1984 to give NFL teams the rights to players who had been eligible for the main draft but had not been drafted because they had signed contracts with the United States Football League or Canadian Football League . </P> <P> Like the other major sports leagues in the United States, the NFL maintains protocol for a disaster draft . In the event of a' near disaster' (less than 15 players killed or disabled) that caused the club to lose a quarterback, they could draft one from a team with at least three quarterbacks . In the event of a' disaster' (15 or more players killed or disabled) that results in a club's season being cancelled, a restocking draft would be held . Neither of these protocols has ever had to be implemented . </P> <P> Free agents in the National Football League are divided into restricted free agents, who have three accrued seasons and whose current contract has expired, and unrestricted free agents, who have four or more accrued seasons and whose contract has expired . An accrued season is defined as "six or more regular - season games on a club's active / inactive, reserved / injured or reserve / physically unable to perform lists". Restricted free agents are allowed to negotiate with other clubs besides their former club, but the former club has the right to match any offer . If they choose not to, they are compensated with draft picks . Unrestricted free agents are free to sign with any club, and no compensation is owed if they sign with a different club . </P> <P> Clubs are given one franchise tag to offer to any unrestricted free agent . The franchise tag is a one - year deal that pays the player 120% of his previous contract or no less than the average of the five highest - paid players at his position, whichever is greater . There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive tags, which do not allow the player to negotiate with other clubs, and non-exclusive tags, which allow the player to negotiate with other clubs but gives his former club the right to match any offer and two first - round draft picks if they decline to match it . </P>

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