NFL rumors: Practice squad size could increase to 16

The size of NFL practice squads could increase to 16 players in 2020, per a report.

For players worried about fighting for a fringe roster spot in the NFL this season, some good news recently surfaced. Per NFL reporter Mike Garafolo, the league is reportedly considering increasing the size of a franchise’s practice squad to 16 slots for players in 2020.

The National Football League, by all accounts, is planning to play a normal regular season in 2020, one that begins in less than three months with the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans opening the schedule. With the recent rise of COVID-19 in many areas, the country’s inability to develop a uniform policy in fighting/treating the coronavirus, and a lack of a vaccine, the league is going to need to develop some flexible measures to handle the potential suspension of infected players.

That means practice squad players could become more valuable—e.g. see more playing time—than ever before. The league had already voted to increase the number of practice squad spots from 10 to 12 for the coming season and the addition of four more players would provide not only more jobs for the players union but security for teams.

Imagine the scenario on a Friday that 5 to 10 players from the locker room suddenly tested positive for COVID-19. Those players would immediately be placed in some sort of isolation and would likely be out for two weeks. Now what if those players were, say, the entire quarterbacks room or multiple players at a given position. The idea that a team could be forced to pick up several street free agents and immediately plug them into a locker room and game plan is a competitive nightmare. At the very least, the proposed increase in slots could mean a team could still install players familiar with the approach and playbook heading into a given week.

For a team like the Chiefs, this would allow coaches and the front office a chance to retain their own developmental players without having to cut a proven performer at the same time. Heading into Week 1, some young players might not be ready given the lack of offseason training activities or minicamps. Yet the team might not want to say goodbye to them just because they aren’t quite game-ready for Week 1 of their first season. Now they don’t have to make that choice—or at least they have a place to put them.

‘This entire season is going to be a working experiment, moving forward one day at a time through a fog of changing information and cautious optimism. Giving teams more flexibility makes all kinds of sense, creates jobs, and has no real downside other than added costs for owners who might be losing money this year already.