NFL Practice Squad Elevation Rules Primer

This year, the NFL has implemented a rule that allows teams to elevate up to two players per week from the practice squad to increase the game-day rosters to 55 men.

Afterward, the team may return the two players elevated to the roster back to the practice squad without exposing them to waivers. The purpose of this was to provide teams who had injuries at specific positions with the opportunity to supplement the roster accordingly.

This means that teams could even increase their active gameday roster sizes accordingly if specific provisions were met. Teams will have until 4 p.m. the day before their game to make these decisions.

But so far, at least, the Giants haven't made any decisions on whether to take advantage of that provision.

"This time of week, there’s a lot of things to talk about in terms of actives, inactives, because of the rules this year with the practice squad," said head coach Joe Judge during a video conference call Saturday with reporters.

"Obviously, we’re entertaining all options throughout the week. We practice everyone accordingly for the game plan. But we haven’t finalized those conversations yet."

Here is a look at some of the rules that will govern the Giants' decisions and an overview of how this process will work. (This information, in greater detail, can be found in the current NFL CBA, Article 33, Section 5: Standard Elevation Addendum.)

Elevating Guys is NOT Mandatory

The decision to promote two guys from the practice squad is NOT mandatory each week.

If you think about it, that makes sense because why bring up two guys if you’re mostly healthy at every position?

So for those wondering if the Giants might elevate a receiver if Golden Tate ends up as questionable on the practice report, that will likely depend on how significant his injury is, and if there is a realistic chance, he might not be ready for Monday night.

There is another factor that must be considered: money. If a player is promoted from the practice squad, he will automatically get a one-game raise, and we could be talking some significant coin here.

Let’s take, for example, a seven-year NFL veteran. While he’s on the practice squad, he’ll earn $12,000 per week. If he gets promoted, his one-week salary will jump to one-seventeenth of $1.05 million or $61,764.

That might not seem like a lot, but if you continuously add guys to the practice squad every week for the sake of doing so, it adds up. It can eat into a team’s available salary-cap space, which they probably want to preserve as much as possible for emergency signings and to roll over as much as possible into 2021 when the cap is expected to dip well below the projected $215 million figure.

You Can’t Bring the Same Guys Up More Than Twice in a Season

The NFL put a clause into the practice squad promotions to where if a team wants to bring up the same guy more than two weeks to “save money,” they can’t.

Per Article 33, Section 5f, clubs may only elevate practice squad players any combination of two regular or two postseason games in the same league year.

Here is the language from the CBA which goes into a little more detail:

In such a case, the player must first terminate his Practice Squad Player Contract and execute an NFL Player Contract, and the Club must request waivers on that contract, or terminate the contract if the player is not subject to waivers, before resigning the player to its Practice Squad. If the Club requests waivers on the player’s NFL Player Contract and that contract is not claimed by another Club, or if the Club terminates the player’s contract, the player shall become a free agent and shall be free to sign an NFL Player Contract or a Practice Squad Player Contract with any Club, including the Club that requested waivers or terminated the contract.

If the player’s NFL Player Contract is not claimed, or if the contract is terminated, and the player subsequently signs a Practice Squad Player Contract with a new Club, nothing shall preclude the signing Club from elevating the player to its Active/Inactive List up to a maximum combination of two regular-season or postseason games, subject to the rules outlined in this Section 5.

If a Practice Squad Player: (i) has been elevated to a Club’s Active/Inactive List for either one or two games pursuant to this Subsection 5; and (ii) the Club subsequently requests waivers on or terminates his NFL Player Contract, or if the Club terminates his Practice Squad Player Contract; and (iii) thereafter resigns the player to its Practice Squad, the player may not be elevated to that Club’s Active/Inactive List pursuant to this Section 5 for the remainder of that regular or postseason.”

If a team is going to need to elevate a player for more than two weeks due to a depth concern created by injury, at that point, they might as well put the injured player on IR.

Remember, teams can now return any number of players from injured reserve this year (this due to the COVID pandemic), and the wait time to get a player back from IR has been reduced from six weeks to three.

What Happens After a Game?

A player on the practice squad who is elevated to the main roster has his practice squad contract put "on hold;" however can’t collect the standard practice squad fee and one-seventeenth of whatever annual base salary commensurate with his years of accrued experience is.

Any player elevated to the roster shall automatically revert to the Club’s Practice Squad at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the first business day following the game without being subject to waivers.

So for a Monday night game, anyone whom the Giants bring up from the practice squad will land back on the practice squad without being exposed to waivers as of 4 p.m. ET Tuesday.

How Can a Team Expand Its Active Game Day Roster?

For teams to increase their active game-day roster from 46 to 48 men, at least eight offensive linemen must be among those active. If this criterion can’t be met, teams can only expand its active game-day roster to 47 men, regardless of whether they elevate one or two guys from the practice squad for that week.

Some Other Practice Squad Notables

If a practice squad player’s contract is terminated before 4:00 p.m. ET, Tuesday, the Club shall not be obligated to pay a player for that week.

I mention this because the Giants, in terminating receiver Derrick Dillon from the practice squad this week, did so to allow for the receiver, who recently became a new father, could spend some time with his new child and be paid while at the same time, not taking up a practice squad spot the team might otherwise need.

(This provision is outlined in the standard practice squad contract, which is in Appendix J of the CBA.)