Depth and The Practice Squad?

[Wi. Mike now in Florida]

When referring to depth on any player, does each position on a football team have a back-up in place, or can depth be drawn from the practice squad?

Quick, my wife ask me this question and I said I'll get back to her.

 

[Beebe82]

Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called football in certain places include association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football(either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football.[1][2] These different variations of football are known as football codes.

There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world.[3][4][5] Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century.[6][7] The expansion of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside the directly controlled Empire.[8] By the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.[9] In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world.[10]

 

[Poppa San]

Practice squad is not on the roster. Game day rosters are drawn from the 53 that "made the team." For a practice squad player to get to the 53, someone else has to leave. End of the bench depth is typically your practice squad players as they are free agents and can be signed by any team in the league (with a few restrictions to keep these guys from being ****** around.)
No there is not always a direct replacement on the 53, hence backup players in training camp being admonished to have position flexibility. There are 9 OL on the roster for 5 starting spots. Do the math.
LT 69 Bakhtiari, David 13/4 78 Spriggs, Jason 16/2 70 Light, Alex CF18
LG 65 Taylor, Lane CF13 62 Patrick, Lucas CF16
C 63 Linsley, Corey 14/5 62 Patrick, Lucas CF16
RG 64 McCray, Justin SF17 74 Bell, Byron SF18
RT 75 Bulaga, Bryan 10/1 74 Bell, Byron SF18
Visit this site for the recent depth chart to get a feel for what I mean.
A properly constructed PS will most likely have every starting position except kickers covered with someone that can be a fill-in. These players get churned through the season as many are just extended tryouts and/or players get called up for injury replacements.

Mason does not have a backup kicker. There is someone (Scott?) that will do it during the game if needed but come Monday, the free agents will be in for a tryout.

 

[Wi. Mike now in Florida]

Practice squad is not on the roster. Game day rosters are drawn from the 53 that "made the team." For a practice squad player to get to the 53, someone else has to leave. End of the bench depth is typically your practice squad players as they are free agents and can be signed by any team in the league (with a few restrictions to keep these guys from being ****** around.)
No there is not always a direct replacement on the 53, hence backup players in training camp being admonished to have position flexibility. There are 9 OL on the roster for 5 starting spots. Do the math.
LT 69 Bakhtiari, David 13/4 78 Spriggs, Jason 16/2 70 Light, Alex CF18
LG 65 Taylor, Lane CF13 62 Patrick, Lucas CF16
C 63 Linsley, Corey 14/5 62 Patrick, Lucas CF16
RG 64 McCray, Justin SF17 74 Bell, Byron SF18
RT 75 Bulaga, Bryan 10/1 74 Bell, Byron SF18
Visit this site for the recent depth chart to get a feel for what I mean.
A properly constructed PS will most likely have every starting position except kickers covered with someone that can be a fill-in. These players get churned through the season as many are just extended tryouts and/or players get called up for injury replacements.

Mason does not have a backup kicker. There is someone (Scott?) that will do it during the game if needed but come Monday, the free agents will be in for a tryout.

Thanks for the info and the time you took to type it all out for me.

 

[Poppa San]

time you took

Waiting for the wife to get home from happy hour at the assisted living center so I can take advantage her out for Friday night fish fry.

 

[gopkrs]

Fish fries are awesome!

 

[HardRightEdge]

When referring to depth on any player, does each position on a football team have a back-up in place, or can depth be drawn from the practice squad?

Quick, my wife ask me this question and I said I'll get back to her.

That depends on what she's really asking.

In one sense "yes" in another sense "no".

For example, the game day 46 man roster might have 7 O-Linemen, as was the case in week 6 with Spriggs and Light inactive. Bell can play OG or OT, Patrick OG or OT, and somebody is the emergency backup at C, possibly Patrick who got some snaps there in preseason or McCray. So, all positions have a backup. However, while two injuries are covered three are not. In the event of three injuries, I suppose Lewis is an option at OT with a line shuffle, of course not something you'd ever want to see but certainly in the realm of possibility. A 4th. O-line injury? Who knows.

PS represents the deep bench. Injuries might necessitate the promotion of a guy from the PS to serve as a backup, which is more likely as the season wears on and street FA options are slim. A player who has been working in the system on the PS might be viewed as a better option than a street FA with some kind of resume who would have to acclimate to the system in short order.

Of course, the Packers just worked out a 1/2 dozen street FAs, all with some or a lot of roster experience, most former mid-round draft picks. What Gutekunst envisions is hard to say, but I believe all but one of them still have PS eligibility.

 

[HardRightEdge]

...practice squad players...are free agents and can be signed by any team in the league (with a few restrictions to keep these guys from being ****** around.

The primary restriction in signing a player off another team's practice squad is he must be signed to a 53 man roster, a promotion and in most cases a significant increase in pay. They are not "free agents". A PS player cannot simply jump to another team's PS; he would have to be cut first.

This restriction is not intended to prevent PS players from being ****** around. It's intended to prevent teams from stashing capable players on the PS. It's intended to provide players an opportunity for promotion and more pay. They may not have a say in which team might "poach" them, though they could turn down the offer, but I think most would welcome the opportunity to get closer to playing and the meaningful increase in pay.

The other restriction is that a player cannot be signed off the PS of a team that the signing team will be playing in their next game unless it's the bye week or it is more than six days prior to that matchup. The reason for this provision is to prevent a team from bringing in a guy from their next opponent just to pick his brain about the opponent's game plan.

There may be some cases where a PS player is paid significantly more than the PS minimum, likes his future prospects with that team for the following season, and might not like being claimed by another team even if it is for the 53 man roster and a modest bump in pay. For example, a #3 QB on a PS paid well above the minimum who sees some pretty lousy play in front of him might want to stay put rather than being signed away by a team with a young franchise QB and a vet backup with a couple of years on his contract. These kinds of situations are uncommon, and the player can turn down that offer.