The rules for the 2020 Practice Squad are pretty confusing and I am unable to find an NFL "Official" document that has these rules.
But in reading through several recent articles and listening to some interviews with different NFL team execs, this is what I have come up with -
NFL Team rosters will be cut down to 53 players on Saturday, Sept 5, 4:00 PM EDT
Sept 6 – Waiver claim period.
Also Sept 6 - Teams can begin signing Practice Squad players at 1:00 PM EDT.
Practice Squad has expanded to 16 player limit.
Up to Six veterans, with unlimited number of accrued seasons can be signed to the PS. They will be paid $12,000 per week.
Up to four players, who have no more than two accrued seasons can be signed to the PS. They will be paid $8,400 per week.
Rookies and players with fewer than 9 games get paid the same rate of $8,400 per week.
On Tuesdays of each week a team can protect up to 4 players on Practice Squad. This rule allows a team to protect from poaching 4 players that might be used for that week’s game.
Practice Squad players can still be signed to another team’s Active roster. Some writers have claimed with the new 4 man Practice Squad protection rule, that it expands rosters to 57. This is not true. The protection rule only begins on Tuesday of each week. All Practice Squad players can be signed to another team’s Active squad prior to this.
NFL teams will be allowed to promote up to two* players from their Practice Squad and then move them down to the practice Squad without them having to clear waivers. Individual players will only be allowed to do this twice during the season. Player has to be added to active roster to do this a third time. This would follow the same rules as in the past with moving a player from PS to Active roster. PS players that are moved up for a game would receive a game day check for the minimum annual salary for the player. (Side not - 48 players can dress for game day if one is an eighth offensive lineman).
In the event of a COVID outbreak, the six player limit for promotions from the Practice Squad would be waived.
*One site said this number was six, so this number could be changing.
Originally Posted by :
Every team would have the ability to return an unlimited number of players to the active roster following placement on injured reserve or the non-football injury/illness list.
The 2020-only rules, which become effective after 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 6, will allow the team to remove any player with a football or non-football injury from the roster for three weeks. After three weeks, the player will be eligible to return to practice. Once he returns to practice, the team will have 21 days to place him back on the active roster.
This applies to all injuries, football or non-football. The unprecedented flexibility to park players on IR/NFI and to bring them back after only three games comes from a broader desire to ensure that the maximum number of players are available to play this season, in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.
Put on IR
#74 Martinas Rankin – Age 25, Cap $750,000, Dead $0
#82 Deon Yelder – Age 25, Cap $750,000, Dead $0R
#79 Yasir Durant – Age 22, Cap $613,333, Dead $150,000
#8 QB Matt Moore - Age 36, Cap $887,500, Dead $887,500
#9 QB Jordan Ta’amu - Age 22, Cap $680,000, Dead $70,000
#30 RB Elijah McGuire – Age 26, Cap $750,000, Dead $0
#12 WR Gehrig Dieter – Age 27, Cap $675,000, Dead $0
#1 WR Jody Fortson – Age 24, Cap $610,000, Dead $0
#70 OT Greg Senat Age 25, Cap $750,000, Dead $0
#61 C Darryl Williams – Age 23, Cap $612,333, Dead $107,000
#43 TE Daniel Helm – Age 25, Cap $675,000, Dead $0
#52 DE Demone Harris – Age 24, Cap $750,000, Dead $0
#96 DL Braxton Hoyett – Age 24, Cap $610,000, Dead $0
#79 DE Tim Ward – Age 23, Cap $610,833, Dead $1,667
#59 LB Omari Cobb – Age 23, Cap $613,333, Dead $50,000
#30 S Adrian Colbert – Age 26, Cap $825,000, Dead $0
#40 S Rodney Clemons – Age 23, Cap $611,666, Dead $13,000
#39 CB Lavert Hill – Age 21, Cap $613,333, Dead $110,000
#31 CB Chris Lammons – Age 24, Cap $675,000, Dead $0
QB Matt Moore would be the COVID Virus hit backup plan. Team could keep him somewhat isolated along with a few PS players to allow him to practice.
Matt Moore's money is already committed. The additional $12,000 per week is just extra for him [Reply]
This story (Interview with Brandon Beane from Buffalo Bills) explains a little about the protected players on Practice Squads -
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For starters, a lot has been made about the ability to “protect” players from being signed off the practice squad. Beane indicated that list begins on Tuesday at 4 PM Eastern of a given week. It’s not a seven-day protection where you can keep other teams’ hands off your players indefinitely.
“Those four protective players are [made] on Tuesdays at four o’clock each week,” said Beane. “So it’ll be kind of free access to poach prior to Tuesday at four after games are played. Your entire 16 would be able to be poached. And then on Tuesdays at four, we’ll be able to designate four guys that we have for the week.”
The players you can protect can change from week to week, but keeping four protected practice squad players plus the 53-man roster theoretically gives teams 57 guys to choose from they know can’t be signed to another team. If they’re thin at a position on the active roster, they can make sure they’re covered with a protected player on Tuesday in case they need to elevate a practice squad player(s) on Friday.
Beane elaborated, saying that signing a player from another team’s practice squad or even a street free agent to play in that same week is going to be difficult in 2020. You’re going to see a lot of practice squad elevations because of the testing window.
“Here’s the thing that makes it tricky [signing a guy off the practice squad on a Tuesday],” said Beane. “If we went to go get someone off a practice squad, as the rules are right now obviously things can change, but that’s going to be a five-day entry to get them in our building. So, you claim a guy on Monday, he’s mostly going to be virtually meeting with you until the end of the week. So he may not have a live practice with your team that week. Just as it stands now, just to get them in the building. It’s like a re-entry whether it’s a free agent, whatever. It’s that test day one, test day two, off day three, test day four. So all of those are going to have to [have] negative tests before they can enter our facility.”
And, as Beane explained it, even if they’ve been negative repeatedly at their former team’s facility, the clock restarts at the new team facility.
“Yeah, it makes it really tough,” admitted Beane.
So the practice squad is going to be more important than ever in 2020. Six players can have an unlimited number of accrued seasons, which means you can stash veterans on your practice squad if they aren’t claimed elsewhere.