Practice Squad Players / Roster Management

[Bryan-Pittsburgh]

Gentlemen,

The NFL off season roster limit appears to be 90 players. Practice Squad players can be given a futures contract that keeps them part of the team's roster through the off season and attend training camp.

The issue is game limitations. However, what does everyone think about keeping our practice squad players currently on the roster if we wanted to??

Currently we conduct a draft, shape our rosters and put players on the practice squad, usually those rookies that need development, practice squad time as the NFL does it.

As it stands now, we have to cut down to 53 players before we press the start new season button, essentially releasing most if not all of the practice squad players.

In order to make this a viable option, we would have to somehow be able to apply training camp to those players left on the practice squad so that they actually develop and can either be placed on an active roster or used to fill the FA pool with viable, young talent as they would have to be on a roster after 2 years I believe?

Take the Rams for instance. I have a full roster and 10 Practice Squad players. In the past, I haven't worried about using the anti / UN retirement option for players. If they retire, they retire. I adjust my roster in the hopes of them staying around. Let's say, after we push the start new season button, the Rams lose 5 players to retirement, I am now at 48 active roster players. If I were able to develop the players on my practice squad, some of those could move to my active roster in addition to any FA transactions and or trades. Then when I draft, I can again fill out my practice squad and begin developing the new players for future use.

The end game is to get our rosters to 53 plus up to 10 man practice squad prior to the first game.

If we could figure the logistics to make this work, I think it would enhance the FA pool with some young players and make getting from the Super Bowl to the start of the new season faster. We wouldn't have to cut players either from the active roster or the practice squad until we get ready to start the new season.

Tell me I am nuts or off base....

[Steve-LA Chargers]

As a commish, I think the main challenge with this is that Rich would have to be the one to cut 10 players from every team and then add them back to every team. That's up to 180 temporary cuts and re-adds, not to mention dealing with the ERtool twice for each team to make the room to add those players back. I have a feeling everyone would love this idea, but logistically it puts way too much work on Rich's shoulders.

Maybe one way to do it would be to still cut down to 53 but Rich keeps the PS player's contract info in the contract file along with the owning team. During free agency, you can match bids to keep them. If no one bids on them, you can have any who survived added back to your roster with their existing contract for no point cost?

Ultimately, it's a worthy consideration, but we must keep Rich sane.

[Matt-Jacksonville]

To make it easy, Rich cuts all PS players in game, but keeps them in the contract file. If someone wishes to bid on them during FA, then they are fair game. If they survive FA, then they are added back to your roster after FA. Wouldn't seem to be much more work than normal.

[Dan-Cincinnati]

The only thing I would say about this is, if it’s ANY extra work I would say it isn’t worth it. Anyone who survives a season on your PS is a fringe player in this league. You are stashing them because of injury and just because you’re allowed to. The difference between here and the NFL is that everyone can see exactly what kind of player it will be at maximum. If u put a good player there, everyone knows, and will take them off ur PS. In fact, I doubt if any player who rightfully gets placed on a PS ends up being signed before free agency when their rookie contract is up. In the nfl I believe teams try to sneak guys onto their PS that they believe have a high ceiling, but aren’t worthy of a roster spot at the moment. Here, it’s just a bunch of 6th and 7th round future free agents, and I have a hard time justifying wanting rich to spend 10 minutes reloading them for us. Just my 2 cents.