In the good ol' days of the NFL, there was no Practice Squad as we have today. The Taxi Squad was very similar, with one big difference; the team owned the rights to the player as long as he was willing to sign on. The Practice Squad is much more player-friendly in that from an NFL perspective, they are all still free agents and may sign an NFL contract with ANY team during the season. Today a team CANNOT transfer one of their players directly onto their practice squad without releasing him first. This gives every other team a chance to claim him. If he IS claimed, he CANNOT be put directly on the claiming team's practice squad. He MUST be given a full NFL contract, where it counts against their salary cap. This I think is a GREAT rule for the players and gives them the best chance to get on an NFL roster. The rule I'd like to see in place is any player not under an NFL contract may sign a practice squad contract. Period. I am very much in favor of eliminating the Practice Squad player limit and eliminating the rules disallowing players with "x" amout of games/years on an NFL roster. I think any person a team is willing to pay wages to that wants to prep for an NFL career should be allowed to participate. Maybe a rule stating "at least 8 of each team's practice squad players need to fit under the current eligibility rule" would satisfy the NFL's desire to bring in more young players, preventing just stashing older vets on the practice squad, which often was done in the old Taxi Squad days, Comments?
