2021 Practice Squad Rules

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Practice Squad Rules:

Once the waiver process runs on Wednesday at noon ET, teams can begin signing up to 16 players to their practice squad the afternoon of Wednesday, September 1. This is the second consecutive year the league has offered a 16-person practice squad after years of eight and then ten players being on the practice squad.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rule changes last season and the league appears comfortable carrying them over moving forward.


How many players on the practice squad?

16 — The NFL and NFLPA had increased it to 12 last year, but the pandemic resulted in increasing it to 16 players.


Who is eligible for the practice squad?

Teams could now have up to six players with more than two accrued seasons of free agency credit.

Teams don’t have to have six such players, and the rest of their practice squad includes the following with no limits on either group (outside of the 16-player max):

Have no prior Accrued Seasons in the NFL (An accrued season is six or more games on the active roster);
Have one prior Accrued Season in which the player was on the 46-man active roster for no more than 8 games



When can a team start signing players to the practice squad

Per the NFL Operations Department, clubs can start signing players to their practice squads “pon receipt of the Personnel Notice” on the 1st. The claiming period for waivers expires at 4 p.m. ET, and the personnel notice is likely to go out after that.


Under this new rule, players revert to the practice squad the next business day without going through waivers. A player can be utilized in this way for two total games during the season. The promotion has to happen before 4 p.m. ET the day before the game.

A team can promote one additional practice squad player within 90 minutes before kickoff in the event of a late COVID-19 positive test result.


Player rights

A practice squad player is an employee of that particular team, but unlike a player on the 53-man roster (or an injured list), a practice squad player has the right to sign with another team’s 53-man roster.

There are a couple exceptions to this:

Last year, the league implemented a rule allowing each team to protect up to four of its practice squad players from other teams.

A practice squad player may not sign a contract with his team’s next opponent after 4 p.m. ET six days preceding the game (10 days preceding in bye weeks).

A player cannot sign with another practice squad while on his current practice squad.



Salary

Practice squad players make $9,200 per week or $165,600 for 18 weeks. Veteran players with over two years of experience will make $14,000 per week or $252,000 for 18 weeks.

Teams are allowed to pay a player a higher salary than the minimum, and this often happens if another team comes sniffing around a player. All practice squad salaries are counted under the team’s salary cap.
 
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