- This topic has 9 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
NFL practice squads could remain at 16 players for the 2021 season
Dave.Schofield 4 days ago
The 2020 NFL season brought many things many of us didn’t expect. Although several games ended up getting tweaked, and entire season was played without missing any regular season contests. COVID-19 protocols were implemented and many things were held virtually which used to happen in person.
Despite all the problems the 2020 season presented, there were some solutions which seemed to be so beneficial they may stick around into additional years. If both the NFL and the Players Association can agree on these items, they could be implemented again this season. According to NFL networks Tom Pelissero, two major changes from 2021 which may last into next season are the 16-man practice squad and different rules regarding the Reserve/Injured List.
Nothing official, but all signs point to the NFL and NFLPA keeping in place for 2021 several of last year’s COVID-related changes to roster rules, including unlimited/faster return from IR and 16-man practice squads, per sources. Those tweaks were popular with teams and players.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 2, 2021
The rule which may have the biggest impact on teams in 2021 deals with the 16-man practice squad. With squads already set to expand from 10 players to 12 players in 2020 due to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL expanded another four positions in order to help teams prepare for players who might have to go on the Reserve/COVID-19 List. While having the extra players is beneficial, the salary for those players will also count against the salary cap. By having another four players throughout the season, it will cost teams an extra $662,400 towards their salary cap. This is assuming the added practice squad players are playing for the minimum amount which is $9,200 a week for 2021.
When it comes to the IR designation, Pelissero explained how the rule changed for 2020 and why both sides thought it was beneficial.
Both sides particularly liked the modified IR rules, which allowed players to return in three weeks instead of eight and removed the cap on the number of players designated for return. Teams had more flexibility, and players often got extra time to recover from minor injuries.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 2, 2021
If the IR rules were to stick around for 2021, teams would be more likely to put players on injured reserve if they know they’re going to be missing at least two games. With players only being able to return after eight weeks being on the IR, and only to being able to do so, players who knew they were going to miss a few weeks still would likely remain on the 53-man roster despite their unavailability. By dipping down to only three weeks a player must be gone would really help with their options in regards to their rosters.
One example using the Pittsburgh Steelers is they had two running backs get their knee scoped during the 2019 season. Because of the injured reserve rules at the time, both Jaylen Samuels and Benny Snell Jr were still on the Steelers 53-man roster as they worked back from their surgery. Had the three week rule been established at the time, the Steelers would have been able to bring other players in on the roster during the time lost as these players recovered.
Whether or not these changes will happen for 2021 remains to be seen. Pelissero reported the talks are ongoing but it could still be several weeks until the two sides come to an agreement.
The NFL and NFLPA continue to talk on a variety of issues, so final word on roster rules, COVID protocols, etc., may not come until closer to the start of training camp.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 2, 2021
If the NFL were to implement these rules for the 2021 season, there is very little downside. Other than the salary cap issue for the practice squad, these rules would help players, coaches, and front offices handle the 2021 season much better. Hopefully both sides can come to an agreement and do what is ultimately best for the NFL.
Agamemnon
The four NFC West clubs will carry these players on their rosters until the end of training camp. At that time, each player will be eligible for an international player practice squad exemption with his assigned team. This provides the assigned team an additional practice squad member for the season.
“The International Player Pathway Program provides athletes with a viable route to the NFL and an opportunity to further develop their skills,” said Damani Leech, Chief Operating Officer of NFL International. “We are excited to welcome the 2021 class to the NFL and continue growing the game globally.”
The NFC West was chosen to receive these players in a random draw and becomes the fifth division to participate in the program.
This past winter, Donkor, Gutierrez, Pircher and Seikovits received additional training alongside NFL players and draft hopefuls at IMG Academy in Florida.
Additionally, four players that participated in the program in 2020 will rejoin their NFC East teams – Isaac Alarcon (Dallas Cowboys), David Bada (Washington Football Team), Matt Leo (Philadelphia Eagles) and Sandro Platzgummer (New York Giants). This is in addition to Christian Wade (Buffalo Bills) and Durval Nieto Queiroz (Miami Dolphins), who are set to enter their third year of the program with their AFC East teams.
The new players taking part in the 2021 International Player Pathway Program include:
AARON DONKOR, LB (Germany) – Seattle Seahawks
A native of Germany, Donkor played with the German Football League’s Dusseldorf Panthers in 2016. In 2017, he joined the New Mexico Military Institute. During this time, he saw action in 12 games over two seasons and accumulated 32 tackles, 12.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. He eventually transferred to Arkansas State for his remaining eligibility and posted 25 tackles during the 2019 season.
ALFREDO GUTIERREZ, OL (Mexico) – San Francisco 49ers
Gutierrez grew up playing youth football in Mexico before moving to the U.S. Upon graduating high school, Gutierrez enrolled in junior college before returning home to Mexico and joining Tec de Monterrey on a full athletic scholarship. He eventually graduated from Tec de Monterrey, where he won a national championship in 2019.
MAX PIRCHER, OL (Italy) – Los Angeles Rams
After attending a Swarco Raiders football game in Austria, Pircher tried out for the same team that introduced him to the game. He tried out positions such as tight end and defensive end before settling on offensive line. During the 2019 season, Pircher was named the starting right tackle for the Swarco Raiders and played on the Italian national team. Pircher has since moved on to play for the Hildesheim Invaders in Germany, where he balances playing football and attending school.
BERNHARD SEIKOVITS, TE (Austria) – Arizona Cardinals
Seikovits was first introduced to football when he started playing flag football at age 10. After his two-year introduction to the sport, he transitioned to tackle football with the Vienna Vikings youth team at the age of 12. Seikovits was selected as a quarterback for the Austrian U19 national team when he was 16 years old. During his time in the program, he competed in two world championships and won a European championship. Following discussions with his coaches, Seikovits began transitioning to the wide receiver position. The position change did not slow him down, as he was selected to the men’s national team at the age of 21, of which he is now a captain.Sammis Reyes, who was also competing for a position in this year’s International Player Pathway Program, was signed by the Washington Football Team in April 2021.
SAMMIS REYES, TE (Chile) – Washington Football Team
Reyes played basketball while growing up in Chile. Reyes moved to the United States at age 13 to attend high school. He practiced as a tight end with his high school football team while also playing basketball. He eventually went on to play collegiate basketball for the Tulane Green Wave.
AgamemnonNFL practice squad explained: Salary and practice squad rules
NFL practice squad explained: Salary and practice squad rules
May 7, 2021 Andrew Pistone NFL, NFL Explained 1In most cases, transactions involving players on an NFL practice squad are often footnotes. They usually involve players being called up from the practice squad the evening before a game in case a position group is woefully thin due to injury.
Practice squad salaries are predictably much less than players who earn much more on the big club, but players can be important during the week to simulate opposing team’s game plans. Let’s take a closer look at NFL practice squads and how they operate.
How does the NFL practice squad work?The practice squad is a group that is separate and distinct from the active roster on each NFL game day. The number of players allowed on an NFL practice squad has been a shifting number since the pandemic began. The league allowed as many as 16 players on a practice squad in 2020, and that number could remain the same in 2021 if virus related regulations regarding positive tests and close contacts are kept. Without COVID protocols, the limit of practice squad players is supposed to be set at 12 for the upcoming season.
Additionally, practice squad players are generally only supposed to be young guys who teams are trying to develop. Baked into the larger maximum set at 12 for regular NFL seasons, teams are only allowed to have 2 players with an unlimited amount of NFL experience. All other players on the practice squad need to have less than 2 seasons of accrued NFL tenure. As such, teams cannot sign an unlimited number of veteran players to their practice squad to gain a competitive advantage.
Do practice squad players travel with the team?NFL practice squad players are not allowed to travel with their team to road games. Even though they put in the same work during the week as players on the active roster (and sometimes more), they’ll watch road games from the same places many fans would; the comfort of their couches at home.
When the team is playing a home game, practice squad players are allowed into the stadium, but they cannot be present on the sidelines. They are required to watch games from the locker room, or the stands.
Probably the most high profile practice squad call up was Kendall Hinton being promoted to the active roster for the Denver Broncos. By trade, Hinton was a wide receiver for Denver, but some special circumstances arose ahead of the team’s Week 12 game against the New Orleans Saints. All three of the Broncos’ quarterbacks were deemed ineligible for the game due to testing positive for COVID or being a close contact.
As such, the team needed to get creative to find their starting quarterback for that game. Hinton played quarterback during his college days at Wake Forest, and this was enough of a resume for him to get the fill-in nod for that contest.
How much do practice squad players earn?
Players on an NFL practice squad earn a minimum of $8,400 for each week of the NFL season. However, they are not signed to guaranteed contracts, and are not guaranteed future weekly salary if they are cut from the team. For example, if running back Joe Smith is on the practice squad for the Las Vegas Raiders for the first three weeks of the NFL season, he’ll make a minimum of $25,200. However, if he’s cut by the subsequent Tuesday before Week 4, he’s not due any additional money. If Smith is not able to sign with the practice squad of another team, or on a 53 man roster throughout the league, that would be the entirety of what he earns that year in the NFL.
However, the $8,400 compensation per week is the minimum, meaning that teams can pay a player more at their discretion. Sometimes a franchise will fork over more than the minimum if they really value a player’s contribution or see something positive in his development.
Even though players are on the practice squad for one team, they can be signed away to another team’s active roster at any time. That’s definitely the goal for every practice squad player, since it is tough to live week to week without any guarantees about what the future might hold from an earnings perspective.
For more on the intricate workings of the NFL, check out our NFL explained section.
AgamemnonWhat Is the NFL League Minimum Salary for 2021?
by Jake Elman on April 14, 2021Professional football remains king, and the NFL minimum salary is benefiting in a big way.
Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the NFL is finding even more ways to make money. The league just announced a new television deal involving ESPN and Amazon Prime, and star quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes continue to rewrite the salary record books.
That is all excellent news for players who haven’t yet hit the point of making what Mahomes or Dak Prescott receive.
The NFL league minimum salary will be $660,000 in 2021 AgamemnonNFL practice squad salaries: Minimum salary, rules & more to know for 2020
Tadd Haislop 9/5/2020
Oregon state song gets new lyrics without racist language
Ocasio-Cortez calls out Kamala Harris after speechIn March, a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NFL and the NFL Players Association established a new salary structure for practice squad players. The new CBA also brought an update to the number of players who can be signed to NFL practice squads among other rule changes.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic changed even more about how NFL practice squads are constructed in 2020.
MORE: How NFL roster cuts work in 2020
The minimum salary for NFL practice squad players in 2020 technically is the same as it would have been before the new CBA was ratified. But now NFL practice squad players are split into two groups in terms of how much they are paid so veterans can earn more money.
The pandemic has not impacted the pay scale for NFL practice squad players, but it has changed the amount of players teams can sign to their practice squads. The cancellation of NFL preseason games — and the threat of the virus causing unexpected inactives during the regular season — has made practice squad construction much more important for teams in 2020.
Below is everything to know about NFL practice squads in 2020, including how much practice squad players make and the rules for NFL teams to manage their practice squad rosters.
Contents:How much do NFL practice squad players make?
NFL practice squad rulesHow much do NFL practice squad players make?
As laid out in the new CBA, there are two salary scales for practice squad players, one for players with two or fewer accrued seasons (the majority of practice squad players) and one for everybody else.
The first group of practice squad players — rookies, players with fewer than nine regular-season games during their only accrued season(s) and players who have earned no more than two accrued seasons — are paid on a fixed weekly salary that increases in each year of the current CBA.
Below are the fixed weekly salaries for most NFL practice squad players.
The second group basically consists of veterans; the NFL defines them as players with no limitations as to their number of earned accrued seasons. Teams in 2020 are allowed to keep up to six of these players on their 16-man practice squads.
These practice squad players receive a fixed weekly salary within the following minimum and maximum amounts over the duration of the current CBA.
Practice squad player contracts do not provide for salary guarantees, bonuses, incentives or any compensation beyond the amounts above.
If a practice squad player is promoted to the active roster for a game, his weekly salary will be adjusted to 1/17 of the minimum annual salary for players with his number of accrued seasons.
Most NFL practice squad players are given help to find living situations, but not money. Per the CBA, if a team signs a player to its practice squad and he does not already live in the area, the team “shall make best efforts to provide the player an option for short-term, month-to-month housing at the player’s expense.”
NFL practice squad rulesThe CBA that the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed upon in the spring increased the size of practice squad rosters from 10 players to 12 players for 2020. (It will increase again to 14 in 2022). That was before the COVID-19 outbreak reached the United States and started impacting sports operations.
Because positive coronavirus test results among NFL players are all but inevitable, it’s reasonable to anticipate more players missing games than usual in 2020. So the league agreed to expand practice squad rosters to 16 players, including six veterans (unlimited number of accrued seasons) rather than two, for this season.
Below are the players who are eligible to be added to practice squad rosters:
Players who do not have an accrued season of NFL experience (rookies)
Players who were on the active list for fewer than nine regular-season games during their only accrued season(s)
Up to four players per team who have earned no more than two accrued seasons (no game limitations)
Up to two (six in 2020) players per team with no limitations as to their number of earned accrued seasonsA player on a practice squad is free to sign with another team at any point, but a team that signs a player from another’s practice squad must add the player to its 53-man roster. There are no practice squad-to-practice squad transactions.
While that’s still the rule in 2020, during the pandemic, teams are allowed to protect up to four practice squad players each week from other teams.
Another new, pre-pandemic rule for 2020 as laid out by the CBA: Teams are allowed to promote one or two players from their practice squads to increase their rosters from 53 players to 55 players on game days. Any practice squad player promoted in such a way would revert to the practice squad roster after the game.
Previously, any practice squad player elevated to the active roster had to have his practice squad contract terminated and replaced by an NFL player contract. That’s still the case for any player promoted from the practice squad to the active roster on a permanent basis.
The NFL also established new practice squad rules that account for potential COVID-19 outbreaks on active rosters. If a practice squad player is elevated to the active roster because his team was given roster exemptions “due to confirmed or suspected cases of a contagious disease among its players,” then the player won’t be required to sign an active player contract. He will automatically revert to the practice squad after the game without going through waivers.
Note: The official language for all NFL practice squad rules, including a complete salary breakdown, can be found in Article 33 of the CBA.
AgamemnonHey ag. Every year you have a nice breakdown on what the Rams have to leave a cap margin to cover. Injured reserve, the practice squad, and so on. You’ve worked out figures on that.
I would appreciate you posting something like that in this thread, if you don’t mind.
The numbers have changed a bit this year, so it will a bit of research. I will get it.
.
last year it was $9,369,000. This year it will be more. AgamemnonThis is stuff that teams have to account for each year.
.
1. The roster goes from 51 back to 53. That adds at 2 at least minimum wage salaries to your Salary Cap. $660,000 in 2021 x 2 = $1.32 million.
.
2. The yearly cost of a practice squad. At least $9200/week minimum for 12 players this year, for I think it is 17 weeks. That gives you a minimum of about
$2 million (1,876,800)
.
3. The cost of your IR list. Every time you add a player, you will need to replace him with another player costing at least the minimum wage. Any thing between $5-$7 million is a low cost for this. imo
.
I would figure a total of $11 million every year to just do business.
.
The Rams have about $7 or $8 million dollars of Cap Space. AgamemnonThank you!
At least with the IR money if you luck out and don’t have several replacements, you can roll that money into the following year’s cap, right?
…
That is right.
Agamemnon
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
