The NFL will hold its annual supplemental draft next month and Adonis Alexander, a defensive back from Virginia Tech, has announced his intent to apply for entry.

Enacted in 1977, the supplemental draft allows players who, for one reason or another, were not able to enter the main draft or continue their college career.

That will be the case for Alexander, who has been ruled academically ineligible for the upcoming season.

In 32 games with the Hokies, Alexander had seven interceptions and 17 passes defended to go along with 125 tackles. He has raw talent but would need to develop consistency in both his coverage skills and run support to succeed at the next level.

Despite his flaws, Alexander’s size (6-3, 193 pounds) could make him a target for Denver’s “No Fly Zone” as he has the ability to become one of those long, lanky defenders in the passing game.

The Broncos should consider him under one condition, and that would be to get him for a pick in the later rounds of the draft, no earlier than a fifth-round pick.

If you’re not familiar with how the supplemental draft works, the process is as follows:

The teams are put into a lottery, the order of which is based on the win-loss record from the prior season. A team that is interested in a certain player informs the league that it would like to select that player and then indicates the round it would like to select that player in. It then becomes a bidding process with the team willing to give up the highest pick being awarded that player. If there is a tie, the team with the worst record from the previous season is awarded that player. That team then loses its pick in that round of the draft the following year.

For example, if the Broncos were interested in Alexander for a fifth-round pick and that was the highest “bid,” Alexander would be eligible to join the team and the Broncos would not have a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft.

The Broncos have chosen a player in the supplemental draft just once, giving up their first-round pick in the 1990 draft to select Bobby Humphrey in the 1989 supplemental draft.

It’s rare for any player to be selected in the supplemental draft. The last was offensive lineman Isaiah Battle in 2015. However, Alexander should be selected in the process and if he can be had for a late-round pick, the Broncos should throw their hat in there.