NFL practice squads allowed to stretch to 16 players

The NFL has agreed to increase practice squads to 16 players for the 2020 season.

Given the dangers of an ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19, the National Football League is undertaking several new measures, protocols and rule changes in order to best adapt to the times. One new agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association is to increase the number of spots on a team’s practice squad to 16 players.

This potential rule change has been on the table in recent weeks as the league looked to increase the potential pool of players for each franchise in case some players are deemed ineligible to play due to contracting the coronavirus or if forced to quarantine.

Practice squads are typically at 10 players per team and any other NFL franchise is allowed to pick up a player from another team’s practice squad at any time if they sign him to a contract that gives him a spot on the active roster. However, NFL reporter Mark Maske reports that not only are teams going to have 16 slots for developmental players, but they will also be able to protect four of those players from being poached by other front offices.

For a team like the Kansas City Chiefs, the increased slots are a major win given that less-successful franchise can typically feed on a stronger team’s roster cuts at the deadline. If a given roster is loaded, then it stands to reason that their castoffs will be another team’s treasure, as they say. While those players will still have to pass through waivers, the Chiefs will have a place for many of them to land and they will even be able to protect those most likely to be taken by another team.