Teams learn art of a practice unit
Pandemic created need for more roster flexibility
Like everything else in this pandemic- altered world, NFL teams have a limited window to go shopping for help in the event of injuries or illness. It has turned the 48- hour period after a game into football’s version of Black Friday.
That’s when coaches and general managers can swoop in and grab players off another team’s practice squad, stealing them away before the player can be “protected” for another week.
It’s what the Steelers did this week with tackle Jerald Hawkins when they signed him from the Houston Texans practice squad. And what the Arizona Cardinals did when they grabbed safety Curtis Riley from the Steelers practice squad.
It’s all part of a system devised by the league and approved by the players union in which practice squads were expanded to 16 players and allowed to include veterans with four or more years of experience because of the potential health problems surrounding the COVID- 19 pandemic.
With few exceptions, teams effectively have until 4 p. m. on Tuesdays — 48 hours from the conclusion of a Sunday game — to sign a player from another practice squad. That two- day window is known as an unprotected period in which any player can be signed off a practice squad by another team, so long as he is placed on the 53man roster of that team.
But after the 48- hour period expires, teams have to “protect” four players each week who cannot be signed by another team. The four players can change each week. For example, the Steelers’ four protected players this week are guard Derwin Gray, running back Wendell Smallwood, linebacker Jayrone Elliott and defensive lineman Henry Mondeaux. That list will expire at the conclusion of the 1 p. m. game Sunday against the Denver Broncos, and the Steelers will have to protect another four next week — either the same players or another four.
Last week, Riley was on the team’s protected list, but that list expired after the Steelers’ opening- game victory Monday against the New York Giants. That’s when the Cardinals swooped in and whisked him off to the desert.
But practice- squad players have some leverage, too. Under an agreement with the players union, any player on a practice squad is allowed to terminate his contract with a team to have the freedom to sign with another team. This would allow a protected player, who might not want to remain protected by that team, to have a chance to get on the 53- man roster of another team. But that player can only do so during that same 48- hour period after a game. Once he is protected, he has to wait until after that week’s game to terminate his contract.
All this was done to help teams who might need more players in the event of positive COVID- 19 tests in the season. That’s why practice squads were expanded to 16 to allow teams to keep up to six vested veterans — players who already know a team’s system or have played in NFL games. It also allows teams to have those players immediately available instead of the two- day quarantine period that is required for players coming from the outside.
So, soon as a game ends, throw open the doors and let the buyer beware.
‘ He’s a tough guy’
After everything he went through to transform himself into a starting right tackle in the NFL, Zach Banner’s season- ending injury on Monday night was upsetting to his teammates on several fronts.
Banner collapsed to the turf with a torn anterior cruciate ligament on the play in which Ben Roethlisberger threw his third and final touchdown against the New York Giants. Banner was backpedaling to get set against the rush of Giants linebacker Kyler Fackrell when his right leg appeared to just give way.
Because he did not see Banner lying on the turf behind him, holding his right knee, Roethlisberger actually tumbled over his fallen teammate after throwing the pass.
But that play might not have been the moment in which the Banner initially injured his right knee. That appeared to happen on the first play of the 11- play scoring drive in the fourth quarter — a 2- yard loss by running back Benny Snell in which the 6- foot- 8, 335- pound tackle was pushed backward by Giants nose tackle Austin Johnson.
Banner appeared to be favoring his knee after that and was unable to set on a seconddown pass to Diontae Johnson. On third- and- 7, a play in which he had trouble getting over to pick up a stunt by linebacker