I don't think most fans have processed how the Covid Practice Squad is going to change the look of the roster this year. Teams will have to cut down to 53 on 9/5 allowing for the typical post cutdown player movement, but after that its a lot different.
1) 1 or 2 players can be promoted to the roster on game day in case of Covid from another player, making it essentially a 55 man roster and those two revert back to the practice squad after the game. I'm not sure if that has to be covid related.
2) They will have 16 players including 6 veterans of unlimited years and 4 of up to two years. That opens the door for a lot of washed up veterans to hang around a little longer if they want to. They would get 1/17th of the minimum salary per game they are activated.
3) There are 4 players who can be protected, but they can't be protected continuously. They can be protected on Tuesday, so before Tuesday they can be poached if another team is willing to put them on the 53 man roster. So I had previously thought they could stash a Tyler Johnson type of player, but no a good prospect will get poached.
4) The Covid-Restrictions mean that once a team poaches a player from another practice squad on Monday that player will have to go through the Covid 19 protocol even if he tested clean for his previous team. So they won't be able to practice with the new team all week. Its going to result in less poaching from other squads, which means you'll be keeping most of your guys the whole year. Some might get elevated, others cut, but not a lot of trading.
Brandon Beane Buffalo GM from SB Nation:
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.
Sp 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.
