While we’re still awaiting the results of the final cuts for the Minnesota Vikings, we’re going to go over the rules governing the practice squads for the upcoming season. Once the final cuts are completed, this post will also serve as our practice squad tracker, so we’ll be updating this post with any news of signings to the practice squad for the purple as well.
As we went over in the previous post about the roster cutdown rules, teams need to have their rosters trimmed to 53 players by 5:00 PM
Central Time on Sunday, 30 August, which is today. After that, teams are allowed to claim any players who are subject to waivers. Those waiver claims will be processed by the league at 11:00 AM Central Time on Monday, 31 August. Once those claims are processed, any players who were not claimed on waivers are eligible to be signed by any team to their practice squad.
An NFL practice squad will normally consist of sixteen players. The one exception to this is if a team brings on a player who is participating in the league’s International Player Pathway Program (IPPP), such as punter Brett Thorson, who has spent this offseason with the Vikings. If Thorson does not make the 53-man roster and clears waivers, the Vikings (or any other team) could bring him onto the practice squad as a 17th member with an exemption. Should that IPPP member get elevated to the main roster, he does not carry that exemption with him. He’s a regular member of the 53-man roster like anyone else.
As far as the other sixteen players are concerned, at least ten of the sixteen spots must be occupied by players who have two or fewer accrued seasons of NFL experience. (An accrued season is one where a player spent at least six games in a full-pay status.) Any player can occupy any of the other six spots on a team’s practice squad, regardless of their experience level.
During the regular season, a player can be “elevated” from the practice squad to the main roster up to three times. If the team wishes to bring a player up from the practice squad for a fourth time, they need to sign them to the active roster. During the postseason, player elevations are unlimited.
In addition, if a team wants to sign a player from another team’s practice squad, it has to sign that player to its active roster. They can’t simply sign a player from one team’s practice squad to their practice squad. The signing team also has to keep that player on their active roster for a minimum of three weeks. A player also cannot sign with a team that is scheduled to play their current team in the upcoming week, unless they do so at least six days before the game (or ten days if the acquiring team is on a bye week).
Those should be all of the rules that we need to be aware of when it comes to the practice squad. Again, once the final cuts are made, we’ll be using this post to track practice squad signings on Monday, so we’ll move it up to the top of the page so people can find it more easily. After all, if the Vikings are going to help people cash on a bet of +140 to win ten games or more (thank you, FanDuel Sportsbook), some of the guys that end up on that practice squad are likely going to play a role at some point this season.
