Practice Squad

This weekend, all NFL teams had to reduce their rosters to no more than 53 players, and later today, teams will begin to sign players to the Practice Squad.

If you follow professional football, you’ve hear the term Practice Squad for years, and know in a general sense what it  is, but the actual logistics of who is eligible and how they get there is pretty complicated.

The original Practice Squad was in Cleveland, where Browns coach Paul Brown invented the "taxi squad," a group of promising players who did not make the roster but were kept on reserve. Team owner Mickey McBride put them on the payroll of his taxi company, although they did not drive cabs 

First off, under current rules, teams can sign up to ten players to the squad.  Players must be paid a minimum of $6,600 per week, but a team can (and often does) pay more.  All Practice Squad salaries  are applied to the the team’s over-all salary cap.

In order to qualify for the Practice Squad, players must meet at least one of the following requirements:

• Have no prior Accrued Seasons in the NFL (An accrued season is six or more games on the active roster).
• Have one prior Accrued Season in which the player was on the 45-man active roster for no more than 8 games.
• Each club will be permitted to sign a maximum of 2 Practice Squad players who have earned no more than 2 accrued seasons of free agency credit.
• If served two seasons on a practice squad, are eligible for a third season only if the team has at least 53 players on its active/inactive list for the duration of that player's employment.
• A player has served one season on the practice squad if he is on the practice squad for at least 6 games. The rule previously required 3 games on the practice squad roster.

A Practice Squad player has the right to sign with another team's 53-man roster. The one exception to this is that the player may not sign a contract with his team's next opponent after 1 p.m. six days preceding the game (10 days preceding in bye weeks). A player cannot sign a practice squad contract with one team and then leave to sign a practice squad contract with another team, unless the first team has released him.

If a player signs with another team's 53-man roster, or is promoted to his own team's 53-man roster, the player must be paid at least the league minimum salary for at least three weeks. They can be released before the 3 weeks is up, but they still have to be paid.

There is one exception, the Contagious Disease Addendum, which was first added in June 2010 in a side letter agreement. This states that if a player is promoted from the practice squad for a game because a club was given a roster exemption due to confirmed or suspected cases of contagious disease among its players, the player remains on his practice squad contract, but will be paid 1/17 of the league minimum salary. After the game he can be returned to the practice squad without having to clear waivers.